SasuHina
by Eglaya
Summary: He's blind. She can't care less.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note (the one and only).** _Sasuhina_. For the lack of a better title. This was initially written out of pure crack in my native language in order for me to refresh my rusty Lithuanian syntax, when I was studying in Korea. However, people sort of liked it, so I decided to translate it into English and post it in international sites as well. Please keep in mind that it was written during '08 October – '09 January and there definitely are some inaccuracies with the manga, since there has been some significant changes in the plot during these months (Kishi-san gave me a heart-attack a few times v.v). Anyways, not sure whether people will read it much here, but any kind of comment is very welcomed :)

E. ^^

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**--1--**

When you have nothing, you need nothing. When you see nothing, it usually boils down to one of three options:

* you're blind;

* sight malfunction is temporal or induced by a certain drug;

* it's too dark in the room.

In this case, however, all the variants were possible. What was more, Sasuke was lying with his eyes closed and he totally wasn't interested in a possibility of seeing anything. It was pitch darkness at midnight in the middle of winter. He didn't know there was not a single star in the sky. The sky was covered by a thick layer of clouds, which did not let the ground get cold, but at the same time it was oppressing the villagers. The streetlights weren't much of a help. Due to dismal weather the usually bright light was now dim and wan, as if one was looking through a glass of a smeary bottle.

The window of his ward was covered with dark curtains which wouldn't have let in any rays of sun even during the brightest day possible. Everything looked gloomy in that small room – white ghostly walls, Spartan chair at the patient's bed and even the patient himself who looked more like a Grim Reaper than a young man in his early twenties.

Sasuke was blind. For a couple of weeks already. Ever since that day, when Sakura stormed into his ward as a case of typhoon and blocked his sight nerve using chakra channels, he has never opened those dark eyes of his. The eyes which have been causing him a severe case of migraine for a few years already. Their light would fade from time to time, and sometimes the eyesight would become more piercing than that of any bird of prey. When he scandalously returned to the renewable Konoha (after planning and trying for several times to wipe his homeland off the face of earth), Sasuke tried to use the sharingan as seldom as possible and depend solely on his taijutsu and ninjutsu, but the blood was some sort of a curse. The more you knew, the more you had to sacrifice in order to retain that knowledge or use it.

Needless to say, that as an illness is there for a long time, eventually a person gets used to it and shakes down to it, therefore eventually Sasuke was no longer surprised when his sight would disappear in the middle of a day and he would have to trust his hearing and touch, trying to get back home through a busy street of Konoha. That was one of the reasons, why he didn't undertake any missions. Perhaps the fifth hag would have given him the highest class missions, but he wasn't so crazy about his abilities to actually volunteer his services and risk the success of a mission. Maybe he was a highly individualistic emo prick, but he wasn't completely dumb.

However, it could not last long, because eventually that blonde understood everything and tattled him on Sakura. Sakura, in turn, told everything to the old hag and Sasuke didn't even register as he was hospitalized swiftly and he had to suffer weird analyses and experiments every single day. Everything, ranging from a mere eyesight check looking at a table of geometry shapes with one eye covered to the most fantastic medical jutsu, which would only leave him hungry or induce an indescribable itch on his back somewhere in between fifth and sixth rib on the left.

He was so tired of everything that he had no wish to object to any of that. He was suffering everything silently, without showing any positive or negative emotions. He didn't say a word when even the Hyuuga's were asked to "save Uchiha Sasuke", even though under normal circumstances his right eye would have started twitching and he would have experienced terrible cramps in his stomach, however right now he didn't care a bit. He could have easily called out for the Team Hawk, which these days was undertaking Konoha's commissions of S-class level. But whatever. He had no wish to hinder them. Besides, that madwoman Karin would start fussing over him again… needless to say, that after all these years he began appreciating people's concern and everything, but as of now he only wanted peace and quiet. Sasuke was sure that his chances to get better were very slim. An Uchiha could have only been healed by another Uchiha. But he was the only one left. Now REALLY the only one. Whoever had an eye wasn't a real Uchiha anyways.

So after a few months of totally futile search for the cause of the illness and after sending all the Hyuugas to hell (Sasuke partially believed that the clan wasn't even trying to help, they just stood there for a few days in front of the analysis data just for the sake of it), Sakura decided to block his sight nerve so that the eyesight wouldn't deteriorate any further, until she finds a reason why mangekyo damages the eyes so much. "You would go blind sooner or later anyways, if we didn't cure you," she told him then. "So what's the difference – being blind for a short time right now, or being blind for the rest of your life later?"

He just shrugged and let her blind him. At least she was no longer that crazy girl from the Ninja Academy who used to be all over him back in the days. She was really professional and she genuinely was trying to find out what went wrong. She was living on. The dumb blonde was living on. The whole damn Konoha village was living on. He was suspended in time.

***

Sakura rubbed her tired eyes and looked out of the window. It was snowing again. In big nice snowflakes. They were falling one after the other, fluttering above Konoha in the middle of a dark winter night, covering the village with a white fluffy cold blanket, which was of a treacherous beauty. She sighed and concentrated on a pile of papers on her desk again. Now, as she was basically a senior medical ninja, the scope of her work has expanded tremendously, but it basically meant that she had to deal with all the papers present. Sometimes she just wanted to clench her fist and cram these papers into the hospital floor with all her might, but that would have caused danger to the whole building, so she would contain herself and write further.

And now there was that Sasuke's case on top of all that. She didn't want admit it, but she had no idea what the cause of his illness was. There had to be some reason for it. Some kind of a clue, hidden in his iris, at the bottom of his eyes, in his blood or DNA. Perhaps she just wasn't adept enough in blood limits. That was why she had asked the Hyuugas for help, hoping that at least Neji or Hinata would help to convince the old heads of the clan to help their former comrade (or the former traitor, most of the people considered him that really). After all it was a common belief that sharingan has evolved from byakugan. However, the young generation wasn't even allowed to approach the Uchiha. The old ones merely stood there for a couple of times, watching the examination, and eventually they walked away, after giving some absolutely abstract and ambiguous pieces of advice.

Sakura couldn't blame them. Uchiha with a high-level mangekyo sharingan was a very handy yet unstable weapon, yet a blind Uchiha was an absolutely harmless mediocre jounin and an inexhaustible source of information. Especially now as he would answer any question concerning any technique he knew about. Unless one would ask something about himself, Uchiha was calm and lazy like an overeaten leopard.

Sakura signed another document and put some stray strands behind her ear. The pink hair was at her elbow level again and she was seriously considering cutting it out of practical calculation. For one, it was getting in the way during missions and at work. Second, she was becoming more like the Fifth, and she didn't want to be compared with her teacher at least in that aspect. Especially as Naruto would remind her eagerly all the time, that "you still need to grow to reach babà Tsunade's level of b00bs… maybe you should drink some concoction or something?"

The medic broke her pencil in half and looked at her hand surprised. There, she got carried away again. She shook her head and stood up. Her office was spacious, but without all those cupboards with files and books galore it would have been even bigger. She sometimes wished she had some sort of a mechanical gadget or a medium, slightly bigger than her pinky or at least smaller than a human head, to store information. She should mention it to the scientists of Konoha. Enough with all that ninjutsu. About time to think of technology.

She switched off her table-lamp and grabbed a few files of papers with intention to bring them to her superior's office. She also was going to visit Uchiha Sasuke before leaving the hospital. Actually she would have gladly missed that last visit, but it was necessary to check over his health indicators, and besides, she had promised Naruto to look over their former teammate. It was neither her duty nor her obligation, but he was constantly alone. Alone in an absolute darkness. It must have been terrible.

Sakura smiled. Perhaps the word "terrible" was not present in Sasuke's individual vocabulary. However, as she headed towards the door she felt her stomach churn with anxiety. The girl knew why. She was afraid she would feel pity the moment she would cast her eyes on Sasuke. She was afraid he would feel her pity. She had spent way too many years with him not to realize that her pity would only upset him further.

When she reached for the handle, she heard a silent knock. Sakura opened the door surprised and met with transparent foggy eyes. Hinata pushed back her snowy and furry hood, and smiled tentatively.

"Hinata-chan?" Sakura blinked.

"Sakura-chan," Hinata unzipped her warm Eskimo jacket and pulled out a dark blue notebook, "I copied a chapter from a book on our clan about blood limits, just as I promised," she offered Sakura the notebook, "I hope it helps."

Sakura took the notebook dumbfounded and opened the first page. Lots of lines in a neat and tidy handwriting of Hyuuga Hinata were telling of an eye structure and special skills of particular clans. She remembered that Hinata had promised to look for any kind of information which would be useful in Sasuke's case, but she had to be extra careful as to not raise her father's suspicion. Every single member of her family would have realized immediately that she was trying to help the Uchiha. Therefore it's been two weeks since her promise and its fulfillment. Suddenly Sakura wished there were more people like Hinata, who were helping without any reward, helping simply because they were genuinely kind.

"Thank you very much," Sakura said silently, thumbing the pages. She bit her lip, trying to hold back that lump in her throat.

"Are… are you alright?" in the course of a few years Hinata learned to leave her stutter behind even in Naruto's presence, but even so her speaking manner remained silent and timid.

"Actually…" Sakura leaned onto the door and looked at the girl in front of her. They were never too close. Hinata wasn't Ino, but there was something in that dark-haired that made her trustworthy. "I don't want to go to his ward… I don't want to pity him," Hinata weighed down her head, when Sakura's turquoise eyes glistened. "But I also don't want him to be alone… and I still need to deliver these papers to my superior…" she perked up suddenly. "Do you have a curfew?"

"Excuse me?" Hinata looked up surprised. "I… me… I have no curfew. I'm... an adult."

"Could you spend some time with him, please?" Sakura cupped Hinata's hands. "It starts oppressing me; I can't take another night like this."

"Me?" Hinata blinked. "But I… I don't even know him… I've never talked to him properly in my entire life…"

"There's no need to talk," Sakura shook her head. "Just sit near him for a while, please? At least for 10 minutes. Pretty please," Hinata gulped as those turquoise eyes pierced right through her.

"A-alright."

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To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2

**--2--**

There were only three lights in a long corridor. Light-bulbs were barely performing their duties, because the walls were covered in a greenish light skin, which would have turned claustrophobic even the bravest person possible.

Hinata wrapped herself tightly in her Eskimo jacket, hunched and moved forwards, counting doors on the left anxiously. The names of the patients glimpsed in front of her eyes. Tanaka Noriko, Lockon Stratos, Matsumoto Rangiku, Sugihara Kai… Hinata came to a halt. "Uchiha Sasuke". She was standing in front of a closed greyish door and was staring at the flaking off paint.

As she had said her goodbyes to Sakura next to her superior's office and had moved on to the 4th floor, Hinata felt like a calf going to the butcher's with out any resistance. She found it weird that she wasn't even trying to ask herself why on earth she was doing this. Why she agreed to fulfil Sakura's request. She was an inert person and once Hinata would fall off her usual rhythm, she would feel at a loss and out of the loop. Any kind of change in her plans would overbalance her, even if that change was a person she met in a street or a dog which ran into the yard.

Needless to say, that sometimes those surprises were welcomed, sometimes not so much, but they all had one thing in common – they all used to make Hinata flounder immediately. She felt at a loss when Neji bought her some rare seeds of a medical herb, she'd been hankering after for ages, but she had never mentioned of it to anyone. She felt at a loss when a foreigner stopped her in a street of Konoha and asked her for directions in a foreign language she knew very well, but at exactly that moment her tongue just wouldn't move. She felt at a loss when one day her hairdresser snipped a little bit more of her fringe than usually, and now she had her long hair parted on the left, and her sidelong fringe fell slantwise on her right eyebrow, the corner of her right eye and eventually – on her cheekbone.

She was at a loss. Because she considered it to be rude to barge into a personal space of a person out of the blue, even if that person was ill and absolutely alone. Hinata was one of those people who knew how to treasure solitude. On the other hand, she was also one of those, who keep one's word, therefore, whatever option she might have chosen, she would still have to trample upon at least one of her principles. And since there was nobody waiting for her at home, Hinata decided it wouldn't hurt to sit quietly for a few minutes in a ward of a sleeping person.

When she reached for the handle she regretted coming without any gift or something like that. She could have at least stopped in the hall at the vending machines and bought some drinks or cookies. Hinata gave a sad smile – her mind was tardy as usual. So she turned the handle and opened the door.

She wasn't surprised by a complete darkness, but the stuffy air oppressed her. She heard the air-con, but it seemed that the equipment wasn't working properly. Just like the light-bulbs. Perhaps even the electric devices had no wish to work in winter. So there was no use trying to find the light switch in this ward.

Hinata's cheeks were seemed with miniature blood-vessels, when she activated her byakugan. The view of the room turned into a negative, but now she could see everything clearly. She walked in timidly and peeped left at the patient's bed. Sasuke was lying on his back with his eyes closed and was breathing calmly. He's sleeping, Hinata thought moving towards the window.

She wasn't working in a hospital and she wasn't as good in healing as Sakura, but even a person with no experience knew that a breath of fresh air was better than a fusty atmosphere, so as she approached the windowsill, she reached out and opened the smallest part of the window quietly. Slightly. And even so a fresh and rather chilly puff of winter air came inside. Hinata walked back to the door and checked if it was closed properly. She was worried she might have left an open gateway for the draught. She could feel the warmth coming from the floor even through her thick shoes, but even the smallest kind of draught could've been perilous to a seriously ill person. Well, Sasuke's problem lay not in his lungs, but nevertheless. Hinata didn't want his condition to get worse while she was there.

It was getting warmer and Hinata took her jacket off, remaining with a turtleneck, and hung it on the chair, which was standing close to the patient's nightstand. She took a look around the poor interior of the ward and eventually sat down on the edge of the very same chair, and put her hands on her knees.

She was sitting quietly for a few minutes, looking at the window, concentrating on the snow, falling behind the glass. It was really calm in the ward. Even Sasuke's breathing was barely noticeable. As if he even wasn't there. Hinata turned around reluctantly and eyed him from head to toes. Byakugan distorted the view alright, but she was still able to dot the "i's" (or turn them round 180 degrees). She angled her head, trying to take a closer look at his features.

There was one thing which hadn't changed throughout all these years – that was Uchiha Sasuke's hairdo, minus the absent parting in the middle and the suddenly-appeared fringe, of course. The rest was… the only clear image of Uchiha Sasuke Hinata still had in her memory was that of the Ninja Academy days, when he was mysterious yet positive character. The boy genius, who would receive love letters every day. Hinata basically knew of all this, because he was in the same team with Naruto. As for Sasuke himself, she considered him a gloomy and morose person. And she had no reason to try and uncover all that. Sasuke was… of no interest to Hinata. He simply didn't intrigue her.

And now she was sitting close to a person she knew nothing about. She supposedly had to stay next to him for a while, so he would feel a human presence, feel the company, but Hinata had no idea how she was supposed to do that. On the other hand, the fact that there was not a single emotion for Sasuke in that complicated mechanism of hers, called brain, was also a good thing, because she couldn't feel the pity, which Sakura was so scared of.

Her eyes travelled down his protruding cheekbones and a strict jaw-line. He was covered with a white blanket up to his chest and only his pale rigid arms were visible on top of the bed. The blood-vessels on Hinata's cheeks spread out even more, when she began checking his chakra channels. One glance was enough to find the clamped sight nerve and a new circuit that the chakra found for itself after bypassing the obstacle. Hinata couldn't find any other anomalies and she blinked, losing the concentration. Weird.

She looked down. The basic structure of sharingan should have been something like that one of byakugan. Perhaps she should've spent more time analyzing, but even at the first glance the puzzled Hinata had to admit that essentially there was nothing wrong with his eyes. As if the illness was a tale. Unless… unless he had no wish to recover himself.

Hinata sighed and checked her watch. She'd been there for 7 minutes already. She couldn't believe she'd been examining Uchiha Sasuke with her byakugan for such a long time. Perhaps she was simply trying to memorize as much as possible, so that she could search for some info on blood limits and eye diseases in her family's library later. One thing for sure though, she wasn't concerned too much about Sasuke's fate. Well, she certainly was a merciful person and she wished no harm or pain to anyone, however, Naruto was highly concerned about Sasuke (although he was trying to pretend he didn't care for him), and Hinata was ready to make every effort in this one for Naruto. Silently, calmly and persistently. The way only Hyuuga Hinata can.

The minute-hand moved over another step, announcing it had been exactly the ten minutes she had promised. Hinata stood up and walked closer to the bed. She looked down at Sasuke's calm face and secretly decided to help him. So that Sakura wouldn't worry that much anymore. And Naruto. So that Naruto could grin from an ear to an ear again.

Hinata nodded insensibly and turned to leave. She could barely hold back a yelp, when her right wrist was grasped by a firm grip.

"You're not Sakura," she heard. It was a sleepy and husky voice, certainly not used to talking.

Hinata turned around. Sasuke was basically hovering above his bed. His long and strong fingers were gripping her wrist, and Uchiha was watching her with his black eyes, which could see nothing.

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To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

**--3--**

Because of byakugan his eyes looked as white as snow. She didn't expect this and for a second it unbalanced her. Hinata deactivated her byakugan so that the big white empty irises wouldn't disturb her. It became dark in a second, but she could still outline his figure.

Instead of running away from this ward as fast as possible, after a little bit of hesitation Hinata grasped his fingers on her wrist with her free hand. Just as she touched him with her other hand she realized how cool his fingers were. Hinata gripped his palm more firmly and pulled it away from her wrist. The fact that he didn't resist a bit didn't surprise her, though she didn't know why. He just lay down in his bed obediently and said nothing, when Hinata tucked him in and put the hand that had captured her next to his side carefully. Her movements were slow, but not sluggish.

"I am… Hinata," she said after straightening creases in the blanket. She heard him swallow slowly.

"Hyuuga," even if it were a question, his intonation was as flat as a fish at the bottom of the ocean.

Hinata was watching Uchiha's emotionless face and his eyes staring blindly at the ceiling. Then she sat down on the chair as if somebody pulled her down by force.

"Why?" another emotionless word escaped his chest and Hinata felt sorry she didn't bring anything for him to drink. The way he would open and close his mouth was enough to prove that his throat was as dry as a desert.

"It just… happened this way," she said, because Hinata herself didn't quite know 'why'. "Sakura had to take care of some papers…" she was going to say more, but she was interrupted by an unexpected "tchi" from Sasuke.

People often considered her boring or annoying, so Hinata didn't even flinch. She merely hushed as she heard Sasuke producing that sound full of disdain. But eventually, as she didn't feel any kind of hostility emanating from him, she realized that his reaction was not caused by the fact she was speaking. It was the contents of her speech, which had nothing to do with her.

„So she finally gave up," Sasuke said and Hinata was surprised to hear relief in his voice.

Hinata scowled. He really resembled a patient who had no wish to get better, because he considered himself worthy of illness. Hinata wasn't a newbie to this kind of situation, but that kind of attitude did not quite match Uchiha's reputation. One could think he was punishing himself, as if it were a peculiar way of repentance.

"I don't think Sakura's given up," Hinata shook her head despite the fact that Sasuke couldn't see her. "She wouldn't leave a friend in distress."

She fell silent after another "tchi" from Sasuke. He turned his head to the wall and Hinata thought it was a sign to leave, but that person… his attitude was so strange that she decided to stay here for a few more minutes. He was strange, because everyone… well, fine, not every single one, but a few important and famous ninjas of Konoha were trying hard to save his eyes. He had people, who cared a lot for him. People, who were bound to sell their souls for him. But he wasn't appreciating that. It seemed he wasn't even collaborating with the doctors, minus those dry answers to questions where did it hurt and where did not. He was contradicting himself – he stayed in the hospital, he was willing to let himself get blinded, but he couldn't care less about the result and the objective. It was almost as if he was bored to death and had nothing else to do.

She was sitting and looking at him, thinking what she should say, but the time was ticking and the words were left unsaid. Her head was empty. She could imagine him either rejecting offhandedly any suggestion she would make or simply being as mute as a fish. Hinata always knew she had problems (especially because of her inferiority complex), but this guy really needed a professional help. The childhood trauma had messed up his brain so bad, that he would never be able to adapt properly in Konoha society.

If somebody could prove him that there are still things to be done and to be seen… Perhaps he would wake up from this lethargy. But even if Naruto wasn't able to put him back to normal (physically or by any other means), Hinata couldn't quite imagine, who could get through that tough skin of his.

He breathed in and Hinata could hear the way the inhaled air was basically scratching his dry throat. It averted her focus from brain-damaging philosophical-theoretic thoughts and it let her concentrate on a lot more practical issues.

She stood up.

"I'll be right back," she said and walked out of the room.

If it were a few years younger Sasuke, he would have blurted out "good riddance" or "whatever" or (if he were bonked in the head) "where are you going?". However, now he merely turned his head back to face the ceiling, drawing various shapes on that black canvas, which was now all around him, with a white crayon in his mind.

He wasn't afraid of the dark. He feared nothing. He had nothing to lose. He wanted nothing. Partially that darkness was even cosy and attractive. He was lying with all of his muscles relaxed and he regretted only one thing – that he could still hear and feel everything. During the past few weeks his hearing got really sensitive and now as he lay in his ward he could even hear the nurses walking silently outside at the very end of the corridor. It was annoying. And sometimes he would get cramps in his right shin. That was also annoying. The problem was, though, that in order not to hear anything anymore one had to kill himself or ask somebody to put him in a coma.

And Sasuke never considered suicide to be a way out. He would have rather tortured himself every single day with the same boring activities than killed himself quickly. He believed he had no right to suicide.

The hearing announced about itself again, when Sasuke's head began pulsing with a silent thumping somewhere far away at the end of the corridor. It was a woman's footfall and since he had heard her coming before, Sasuke realized immediately it was Hyuuga. Actually, her appearance was so strange, so unexpected and accidental that it was even… interesting. As if a song randomly selected by a music machine. As if a breath of a fresh air.

Sasuke took a deep breath through his nose. Among all of that bulk of inhaled oxygen, he could feel a fresh chill from the outdoors. He always associated the Hyuugas with the cold. Perhaps because of their eyes. If the Uchihas were the fire, then the Hyuugas were an indestructible ice. Only today everything turned around in 180 degrees. Sasuke himself felt that his body and the whole circulation of fluids were numb, and he was lying on that bed like a vegetative patient. On the other hand, when she touched him, Hyuuga's hands were warm and not businesslike. It was nothing like Sakura's hands, which manifested her experience and competence; it was nothing like the hands of nurses and doctors, who were only doing their job.

Hyuuga wasn't trying to cure him and so far she wasn't showing any signs of wanting to save his eyes or say another encouraging speech. As a matter of fact, he had heard hundreds of those already and for exactly the same amount of times he wanted to kick the speakers' asses. She had been rather silent so far. And he decided that he will try to tolerate her for a time being. Unless she lingers here for too long.

The door opened and Sasuke heard Hyuuga come inside and sit down onto the chair in front of his bed again. The clothes swished softly and judging upon that he decided that whatever she was wearing, it was really loose and didn't constrain her movement at all. He clenched his jaw as he heard her clear her throat.

"The water-cooler was empty," she uttered in her silent voice which was pretty good on one's ears. "So I took two packs of juice – peach and tomato…" she gripped the carton packs firmly in her hands. "Which would suit your taste better? I'm sorry there's not much to choose from, but there were only these two flavours…"

Actually, there were also carrot juice in the vending machine, but Hinata decided that giving carrot juice to a blind person would be a bit too grotesque.

"I'm not thirsty," he wheezed.

"Your voice says the opposite, Uchiha-san," Hinata said silently and watched his face carefully, as he furrowed his eyebrows once she added the honorific to his name. But she couldn't speak otherwise. It was the way she had been taught. Besides he was twelve no more, and she couldn't call him Sasuke-kun just out of the blue.

Hinata weighed down her head and peered at her knees, sitting there dead silent. Some nerve deep inside Sasuke's head began twitching. He realized that, despite being a timid gawk, Hyuuga must have been even more stubborn than Sakura, and there was no way she would leave him in peace until he drinks at least one pack of that damn juice.

Sasuke sighed and sat up slowly, centimetre after a centimetre. Hinata looked up surprised. He stretched his right arm with his palm turned upwards.

"Tomato," he said.

Hinata unwrapped a small straw immediately and pushed it through into the pack, making a small hole at the top of it. Then she stretched her arm forwards carefully with intention to give the pack to Sasuke, but she also took his hand into hers just in case, so that he wouldn't drop the juice by gripping it in a wrong way.

The cool pack of juice sent shivers down Sasuke's arm. Well, at least he thought it was because of the pack of juice. He drew the drink closer to his mouth, holding the pack with both hands, until finally he felt the straw with his lips and sucked out slowly every single millilitre there was. Meanwhile Hinata was thinking that most probably the eyesight wasn't his only problem. There must've been something wrong with his blood circulation as well, because his lips were basically as pale as his skin. Of course, it was hard to discern colours in darkness, but the sole fact that she couldn't tell the difference between his skin and his lips was rather disturbing.

When the pack was empty Sasuke offered it offhandedly to Hinata and lied down again, once the empty carton was in her hands. Hinata nodded slightly, satisfied with herself and stood up, now really meaning to go home. She took her jacket off the chair's backrest, stuffed the empty pack into her pocket, and put on the swooshing jacket slowly.

She pulled up the zipper and headed towards the window with intention to close it.

"Leave it," came a nonchalant voice which wasn't as listless as before.

Hinata pulled back her hand and put the remaining pack of peach juice onto the windowsill. She crossed the ward slowly and came to a halt once her hand was on the door handle. Nobody visits Sasuke, she thought. Naruto was away on a mission, because the son of the Fourth was an item of high demand, which the Fifth was trying to sell or rent as frequently as possible, and Sasuke had no other friends who wouldn't visit him just from a sense of duty. And he had no family.

Hinata frequently thought of the Hyuuga clan as of a prison, but it must've been worse to be absolutely alone. She didn't dare to say anything, but she couldn't leave just like that too. Hinata gripped the handle firmly.

"Speak," she almost flinched when she heard a rather imperative voice of Uchiha.

Sasuke got bored of waiting her to talk. He didn't have to see everything to realize that she wouldn't leave until she said what she wanted. And for the sake of his peace he was ready to listen to any nonsense this Hyuuga had to say.

"I… well, most probably I will come back some time… later to see Sakura again," she began with a slight hesitation. "Perhaps… maybe you… you'd like something? I mean, I could bring something the hospital doesn't provide you with… or so…"

Sasuke closed his eyes and gave a wry smirk, marvelling at the submissive character of the Hyuuga heir.

"Yeah, fresh tomatoes."

Hinata nodded and left the ward, closing the door silently. Only when she pulled her furry hood onto her head at the very end of the corridor she realized something – where was she going to find fresh tomatoes in the middle of winter?

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To be continued…


	4. Chapter 4

**--4--**

When after a third turn to the left she bonked into the wall again, it wasn't funny anymore and Hinata opened her eyes, sitting on the floor and rubbing a bump on her forehead. She had no idea why she closed her eyes the moment she came back home from the village and began wandering blindly around the Hyuuga mansion. One would think that after spending all of your life in the same house you should know it to the core, and it should be easy to find a way to your room even in pitch darkness, but Hinata would miss a step or two and would hit a wall.

The branch family members, who passed by then, would only eye her suspiciously, most probably thinking that the Hyuugas would be doomed with that kind of heir. But Hinata didn't care. First of, this heir thing was only de facto so to speak. Yeah, well, officially she was still the future head of the clan, but Hinata had stopped believing a long time ago that she will be entrusted the rule of the family. Of course she knew how to fight and was reasonably strong, especially since Neji began training her two years ago, but her forte still lay in medicine and gardening and it had nothing to do with the life of ninjas, who were the tools of kill. Needless to say, that the medic abilities were important as well, but just like the other highly traditional families (or nations) the Hyuugas were hard to shake out of the old inertia. They did not value a lot any skills other than fighting. The sole fact that Neji was now welcomed to the meetings of the main family was a change big enough in the old thinking. They were not ready for another one yet.

What was more, Hanabi was in possession of a character which was far more suitable for a leader than that of Hinata's. As far as the elder Hyuuga was concerned, it was nothing for the junior to jump over a few steps and become the heir. Hinata was hoping silently though that the day when the Hyuugas would appoint their new head someone would ask (or listen) her opinion and she would be able to say a word or two for Neji. After all, he was the most talented member of the clan and in the past few years even his temper became milder. Uzumaki Naruto had kicked his butt enough to make Hyuuga realize that some threads of your fate are in your hands.

"Normal people usually look ahead," Hinata saw two feet in woolly socks and hunched a little bit, when her cousin kneeled down in front of her, picking up the things she dropped – her backpack, a manuscript roll, a few pencils, a folded paper…

Normal people usually look ahead, Hinata thought, but I just wanted to know what it feels like being blind. She looked up at Neji. A part of his face was covered by his long silky hair, which he never strung.

"Terrible…" she said tying up her previous thoughts incoherently.

Neji halted for a moment, before stuffing the manuscript and the pencils back into her bag. He gave a wry smirk and looked at her.

"Terrible indeed," he offered her a hand and helped her to get up.

"Thank you," Hinata said, when Neji gave her the backpack and he was about to give the folded paper too, but the curiosity got the better of him and he unfolded it.

He scowled. There was a huge column of almost all shop names in Konoha, written in Hinata's neat hand-writing. And they were all crossed-out. As if she had been looking for something and couldn't find it.

"Grocery?" he asked incredulously, showing her the list.

"Oh…" Hinata went numb a little bit, staring at that sheet of paper in her cousin's hands. "Yes," she weighed down her head.

It had been a week since her visit at the Uchiha's ward. Late in the weekdays she would sneak into her clan's library and copy several paragraphs on eye diseases from a huge bulky book, which was also saying something about the connection between sharingan and byakugan. She let Sakura know about it and she agreed to meet her at the end of the week. Actually, she was rather surprised that Sakura valued her opinion on the matter that much. But now Hinata was really going to show up at the hospital again, and she couldn't get Uchiha out of her head.

To be more exact – it was his request. She shouldn't have volunteered to bring him anything in the first place. Now she was running like crazy down the snowy streets of Konoha, ransacking the grocery shops, looking for fresh tomatoes. But everything was fermented, marinated, brined or conserved, frozen or preserved in some other way since summer and autumn. One would have never found fresh fruit or vegetable at this time of year. Hinata was even thinking of using a summoning technique to transfer herself straight to the South of the Fire country. But that would have been a bit too extreme.

"Looking for something?" Neji asked, giving her back the list.

"M…" Hinata nodded, put the paper into her pocket and headed towards her room.

"May I ask for what?" Neji followed her. He was walking proud and straight, but his posture was not emanating his usual contempt towards the others. He was slightly irritated by it, but during these past years this girl had managed to tame him like a wild cat. Hinata put the bag on her shoulder.

"Fresh tomatoes," she looked up at her tall cousin. "You know, FRESH."

"Just plucked off the bush?" Neji angled his head.

"Mm…" Hinata nodded and walked on hunched.

"Straighten up," Neji ordered and she stretched up like a cord. "Hina-chan, tomatoes?" he asked again. "You don't like tomatoes…"

"But they're still tasty," Hinata contradicted silently and Neji held her by her elbow. They both stopped in front of the door of Hinata's room.

"Too much of tomatoes make your tongue ache," he said solemnly, looking at her with his misty eyes. "And you like cucumbers better anyways. Why do you need fresh tomatoes?" he bent down his head so that Hinata would be in his eye level.

"I… I promised…" Hinata swallowed nervously. "For one person. I promised to bring it."

Neji sighed and looked away. If Hinata promises something, she always lives to it. Sooner or later. It was slightly troublesome. Despite her tender personality she was rather stubborn.

"You should stop promising stuff to every single person you meet," he said. "And stop being a perfect Yamato Nadeshiko*. That is the reason everybody's using you."

Hinata pursed her lips and said nothing. She just clenched her bag straps tightly and stared right in front of herself. There was Neji's collar. She didn't know whether she was really short or whether Neji was ridiculously tall, but her nose was at his shoulders' level.

Neji was looking at her for a while, until eventually he clenched his fist and, grabbing her by her hand, he dragged her down the Hyuuga mansion corridors.

"Come on," he said, walking rapidly. Hinata jogged after him.

"Neji-niisan?" he wheezed surprised. Her hair flapped with every step she made.

"I feel rather stupid copying Shikamaru," he grumbled. "But… めんどうくさい**..."

Neji didn't know what was frustrating him more – Hinata's wishes or the fact that he wanted to fulfil those wishes, but them both found themselves at the doorstep of the Hyuuga mansion pretty fast and he jumped into his boots without any delay. Hinata just stood there dumbfounded. She was blinking not getting any of this. Neji turned around and, seeing her still in her socks, he ran towards the coat hanger, grabbed her jacket, pulled the thick scarf out of jacket sleeve, swathed it around Hinata's neck and mouth, threw the jacket around her shoulders and pushed her towards the warm boots of size 37***. While Hinata was putting on her shoes still slightly busy, Neji buckled up his jacket and drew down the hood.

There was a severe wind howling outside, it would have messed up with his long hair if he hadn't done anything about it.

"Oh!" the front door opened and a snowed-in Hanabi burst inside. "Niisan~!"

"Tell uncle that we're most probably going to be late for dinner," he touched the damp head of a teenager in passing, grabbed the warmly wrapped up Hinata by her wrist and ran into the snowstorm with her.

"O…" Hanabi blinked watching her elder sister and her cousin disappear behind a white snowy wall. "But it's only noon!!" she yelled, but they didn't hear her anymore.

The only thing Hinata could see throughout the run was her cousin's wide back. She was running after him, lifting her legs high, sinking into the snow. The wind coloured her cheeks and she was silently thanking Neji, that he wrapped that scarf way up to her ears. She was blinking as the snowflakes got into her eyes and she didn't even want to know what amount of snow Neji had to push through as he was running ahead, partially shielding her from the wind.

He wasn't going to the village. The Hyuuga lands were right next to Konoha, and when they left through the main gate, Hinata thought that he would head towards the centre of the village, but after a few yards down the main street, which led to Konoha, they turned behind the corner straight towards the forest, which stretched far to the very end of the administrative limits of the town.

The trees were growing all over a hilly land and, instead of jumping from a branch to a branch; they kept on running upwards on the ground, because there were less snow on the wintry bed of the forest. The trail was getting steeper and Hinata realized she was losing her breath. However, she didn't slow down and kept on following Neji insistently, even though he was running up like a twister.

He stopped only when they found themselves far in the hills. Far away from Konoha. As Hinata turned around, she saw the roofs of the houses the size of the pin heads. She was breathing hard, marvelling at herself that she was able to take down such a complicated route in such a short time. Now it was snowing lightly and it was not even getting dark yet.

Neji headed towards a group of heavily snowed-in trees. Their showy caps made them look like a huge dome.

"Here," he said and Hinata walked towards her cousin confused; he was standing next to an old tree trunk.

"I don't understa…" Hinata mumbled, but Neji hugged her from behind and raised her right hand.

Hinata's heart was beating like mad. Her gloved hand, which was being held by Neji, touched the dark grey tree and something clicked. She looked up alarmed. There was supposed to be a bunch of thick branches, but a weird hole opened. Hinata had no time even for a squeak, because Neji gripped her waist firmly and soared upwards, pushing them both inside through that hole, using nothing but a simple inertia.

She closed her eyes, expecting a crash, but as Neji was holding her, she landed down lightly and safely. The light was penetrating her eyelids and Hinata opened her eyes slowly. She did it slowly so that her eyes would get used to the bright light, but eventually he stared in astonishment. She pulled down the hood and began untying her scarf. Her jaw dropped.

It was a greenhouse. No. A garden. A huge garden of glass skeleton, hidden amid snowy trees. This couldn't have been done without certain ninjutsu. And maybe even genjutsu. Hinata took a look around. Her head was spinning with so much of green out here. It was so grey and white outside, and here everything was green; flowers were blooming as if it were spring.

Herbs of various species were planted in neat rows of beds and this order was so much like the one she had in her garden at home. Hinata took one step forward suddenly realizing the possible meaning of all this. There were at least six beds of various flowers in front of her eyes. Three long tracks were stretching down the garden and she could already imagine where they would take her. There were no big trees which would mark the usual borders, but Hinata knew that behind the flowers there should've been herbs, and behind the herbs…

She took another step. Then another one, and another one, until she dashed forwards dropping her jacket, scarf and gloves on the ground. She ran past the innumerable kinds of flowers, herbs and other plants. She noticed that some of them where the ones she had been hankering after for a long time, and she would have bought them if only she had known where to look for them. She passed another row of herbs. She knew it was rude to run around other person's property like that, but she had this weird feeling which she would've been able to get rid of only if she made sure her suspicions were right (or wrong).

There were no more herbs and now she was running down the beds of yellow flowers that were cucumbers. She could see lots of small rods stuck into the soil behind the cucumbers, and the plants were tied to them; they were supposed to stand straight. It was easier to reap the harvest this way…

Hinata froze. Tomatoes. Real, living, slightly red tomatoes. She was looking at a few rows of that vegetable unable to believe her own eyes. Then she took another look around, taking in the green and the person who brought her here. Neji was standing right next to her, not even breaking a sweat. His face was emotionless. Hinata began breathing hard. Neji looked away as he met her eyes.

"You weren't supposed to see it yet…" he grumbled. "There are still birds and butterflies missing…" he added and Hinata felt as if she'd been hit with a wet mop all over her face. She suddenly covered her mouth so that she wouldn't start laughing.

"What?" Neji turned to her, slightly irritated.

"Just," she giggled silently. "The word "butterflies" doesn't really match your face," she kept on giggling.

"Probably," he crossed his arms. "Anyways, these tomatoes aren't ripe yet. You have to wait a bit… In any case, I was going to show you everything three days later…" his voice was getting softer with every word he spoke.

"Three days later…" Hinata repeated and she was left speechless. Her arms drooped. "Neji…" she looked around. "All this…"

"Yeah… probably…" he looked up at her as if he were a maltreated dog, which was trying to get home. "Happy birthday."

Hinata felt needles pricking her face. She sighed. And suddenly smiled softly. Everyone was her rival and opponent in the Hyuuga clan, but that moment she realized that at least one member of the family WAS her family. A true friend she could trust.

She walked closer to him slowly and outstretched her arms. Neji didn't even flinch when she took off his forehead protected, unveiling that damned seal. Even if he were surprised, Neji didn't show it. Hinata ran her tender fingers through the seal carefully, tiptoed and gave it a kiss. Contrary to most of the Hyuugas, she had never found the seal to be repulsive. It only used to make her sad.

"Thank you," she said pulling away and smiling faintly.

Neji opened his mouth as if to say something, but eventually he just swallowed the saliva and bent forwards, reaching out for her. Hinata stopped breathing for a second, afraid he might kiss her, but cousin only hugged her tight, as he pulled her close to him and buried his nose into her shoulders. He closed his eyes and sighed as if all the troubles of the world had disappeared.

"You're welcome."

Tomatoes: check.

Courage to show up at Uchiha's ward: program load error. Press any key if you wish to continue.

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***** _**Yamato Nadeshiko**_ is referred to by Japanese as a woman with attributes that were considered traditionally desirable from the perspective of a male dominated society; generally ascribed to people with traditional upbringings. (from wiki)

** How troublesome…

*** European size 37 ~ US Size 6.5 or 7 ~ Korean Size 240

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To be continued…


	5. Chapter 5

**--5--**

"What do you mean, you don't know what's wrong with him?!"

Hinata froze in front of Sakura's office door, as she heard an angry sonorous voice. She hunched and pressed a full heavy bag to her chest.

"Read my lips – I don't know!" Sakura retorted in a tired voice. "Physically he's perfectly fine…"

"Yeah, only blind!" Naruto exclaimed. Hinata could easily imagine his twisted face.

"Well, I'm sorry, I'm not Madara and I don't know sharingan enough to…"

"Then what DO you know?!" Naruto exploded and Hinata flinched, shocked by a sudden outburst of emotions. "Why have you trained with that babà if you can't do anything at all?!"

There was a muted thump and Hinata guessed that either Naruto hit the table with his fist or Sakura dropped some heavy file.

"You think I don't care?!" the medic was really angry. "What do you think I've been doing all these months? Huh?! Do you have any idea how much research and how many tests have been done? HUH?!"

"Sakura…" he said softer, noticing that Sakura's voice was cracking.

"Don't touch me!"

Silence. Hinata bit her lip wondering if she should knock or come later, but it was late in the evening already and this time she would have really gotten in trouble at home, if she came back at dawn. The heads of the clan were pretty mad yesterday already, when she was late for her birthday celebration. Actually, Kiba and Shino suggested her going together for a drink today, but Hinata postponed their meeting for some other time – it was impossible to cram everything into 24 hours.

She was late yesterday because she had been examining the garden with Neji and picking more or less ripe tomatoes. She didn't want to be late again because of the very same tomatoes. But to go as far as to intrude into Sakura's office…

Hinata wasn't fifteen anymore and she didn't blush every time she met Naruto. Still and all, as the years pass one learns to discern between a genuine feeling and a childish crush. Having a dream and idealizing it was one thing, but bringing the dream to life and down to earth… that was totally different. Of course she wasn't stupid; she knew Naruto wasn't perfect, but the question was – was it worth chasing an ideal for your whole life? Or was it worth living with that ideal? One thing Hinata knew for sure – even if she ever dared to confess Naruto about her liking him and if (a highly hypothetical "if") he had accepted her… she would have spent her life comparing herself to him and regretting that she can't be as strong. Regretting she can't be a proper support.

She hunched practically feeling Neji hit her on the back for these self-degrading thoughts, but Naruto still remained a ghost of her past. Her heart would still beast fast if she were near him, receiving his warmth and seeing his smile. Perhaps that was her natural reaction to Kyuubi inside of him as her byakugan nature was chakra-sensitive. But that wasn't scientifically proven yet.

Hinata used to hear tales that true love was like a lightning. Strange. Because Naruto wasn't a lightning (he probably didn't inherit that trait of his father). Naruto was a warm caramel which could make you melt like ice-cream in the sun. Anyhow, it all boiled down to the fact that a person struck by a lightning and a person melted into a puddle of goo had one thing in common – inability to move.

And Hinata wanted to move. She wanted to move forwards. And to open that god damn door. She was about to raise her hand and knock when she heard them talk again.

"I'm not thirteen, Naruto," Sakura was speaking so silently, that Hinata had to put her ear to the door. "I stopped chasing after Sasuke a long time ago. I want to save a friend. Not earn a few points in some competition."

"I know," Naruto answered.

That's it; Hinata pursed her lips firmly and decided: she raised her hand and knocked. She gave them a few seconds to get ready (if they were in a weird position or something), and then she pushed the door and walked in.

Sakura was sitting behind her desk and was putting her papers back into the file. She had her long hair braided into two plaits, which were covering her chest. "You should've left them behind your back," Naruto had said back then, when he'd just entered the office. "Now it attracts attention where there's nothing to see…"

Naruto was standing at a huge window with a red palm-shaped mark on his left cheek, with his hands behind his back, looking at something in the distance. His golden locks were dishevelled as usual, and his long leather coat, lined with fur, was reaching his shins. One look at a tall and well-built young man left no doubt about it – he really was going to be a hokage one day.

"Hello," Hinata closed the door.

"Hinata-chan," Sakura looked up from the papers and gave a soft smile. "Sorry about the mess…"

"Ah, it's alright," Hinata shrugged, coming closer. "I just brought a few more paragraphs from a book… no, sit down," she raised her hand, stopping Sakura, who was already standing up. "I'll just leave it and go. It's late… Hello, Naruto-kun."

"Hey, Hinata-chan," he turned around and nodded with a demure smile. Ever since Sasuke had been hospitalized the trademark grin disappeared from Naruto's face.

"Oh, thank you," Sakura took yet another notebook from Hinata and opened it. "Any thoughts?"

"Mmm… not too many," Hinata pouted slightly, watching as Sakura was reading another copy of the Hyuuga manuscript. Naruto was glancing curiously at Sakura, the notebook and Hinata in turn.

"Hinata-chan, you're also into it?" he asked, walking closer to Sakura's chair gingerly, as there was still a possibility of receiving a nuclear punch into another cheek.

"A little bit… well, anyways…" Hinata lifted up the paper bag, because it began slipping down from her grasp. "I have a feeling that this might be hereditary, but then the treatment would be a lot more complicated."

"We'd better hope it's not inheritance," Sakura grumbled. "Because in that case there'd be a high possibility it's not curable at all…"

"Mmm…" Hinata nodded. The thought of living in darkness gave her an unpleasant shudder. "So… I'll be going then."

"Thank you. By the way," Sakura perked up. "Hinata-chan, wait a second."

"M?" Hinata turned around as she stopped dead in her tracks.

Sakura opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out something. A pack of peach juice was placed on the desktop. Hinata stared as if she had just seen a ghost. She walked closer, took the juice carefully from the tabletop and checked the package. It wasn't expired yet. She pursed her lips. He could've drunk it at least, that bastard. His mouth was getting dry from all the medicine he was being pumped with anyway.

"You know where I've found it," Sakura said, watching Hinata's reaction closely.

"I know," Hinata nodded and gripped the pack tightly. It was about time to make him drink this by force.

-------

He didn't have to hear the same sound twice in order to make an association between it and some thing, animal or a person. This time those steps were a lot faster, but the person was definitely the same. Sasuke was slightly surprised. He would've betted that Hyuuga would never appear in his ward again, but there were definitely her fast and swift steps outside in the corridor.

Sasuke grinned as if with a mischief in mind. That obedient feeble lamb was trying to please everybody so hard, that she was even bringing tomatoes for a son of a bitch like himself. That was one of his weird weaknesses – tomatoes. Sasuke was planning delighted already, how he was going to throw all of them on the floor, claiming that the vegetables weren't fresh and they had been simply preserved in some way since summer. Maybe he was blind, but he was still in touch with the time. It was midwinter.

The door opened silently and she walked in slowly. He heard the light switch flick and closed his eyes tight out of pure habit, but then he realized that now this habit was worthless.

"You're back," he said.

"I'm back," she answered pretty quickly and Sasuke felt a light weight on his stomach. He frowned and stretched his arm, reaching for the foreign body. It was a small and rather soft rectangular thing. Something squelched inside as he shook it.

"Tomato juice again?" he cocked an eyebrow, disdain obvious in his voice. "I've asked for fre—"

"No," Hinata chipped in softly but decisively. "This is the peach juice from last week. I left it so you could drink it. And you're going to do it right now. Otherwise I'm not giving you the fresh tomatoes."

"Tchi…" Sasuke produced a weird sound. "Fresh tomatoes? Don't make me laugh."

"Yes, fresh tomatoes," Hinata put the bag full of vegetables on the patient's nightstand. "My arms went numb while carrying it, to be honest."

"Lies."

"I'm not lying. Drink the juice, please. I'll give you tomatoes in return," Hinata was a firm as a mother of a naughty 5-year-old.

"How am I supposed to shell the straw out and poke the pack… I'm blind," Sasuke raised his hand and shook the juice pack he was holding.

And he's considered to be one of the best shinobis in Konoha, Hinata flustered, coming closer. The Hyuuga kindergarteners were able to empty the packs of juice with their eyes closed. She took the pack and the moment their fingers touched, Sasuke grabbed her wrist with his free hand and pulled her close, burying his nose into her chest. Hinata produced a very thin and very high sound. He breathed in so loud, that she thought her eardrums would explode. Millions of small sharp needles pricked her head right along the hairline.

He pushed her back as suddenly, as he had pulled her closer. He gave a nod of approval and began shelling the straw out of its plastic prison. Eventually he groped around the pack and poked the straw inside.

"Well, it's tomatoes indeed," he said tapping his nose. "Get the table ready, Hyuuga. I'm drinking your stupid juice," he took a greedy sip.

Hinata's face was on flames.

"Y-you… how… you… said you couldn't…" she stuttered, cursing herself for the lack of control. "Said you weren't able to poke the pack through!" she flopped shocked onto the chair. The joy of having Uchiha Sasuke squash into your cleavage didn't occur every single day. He stopped sipping the juice and turned his head to her. Even though his black eyes didn't see a thing it seemed as though he was boring right through her.

"Hyuuga, I might be blind, but I'm still a shinobi."

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To be continued...


	6. Chapter 6

**--6--**

Hinata, feeling all shivery, pulled out a cutting board from the bag and put it on her knees. She had definitely had even closer contacts during her training and fighting, but it was a first time when somebody touched her so… out of the blue. She was staring at the light brown wooden board unable to see a thing. One could've thought that tomatoes were like a drug to him, if he could even discern the smell.

She plunged her hand into the bag, pulled out a child-fist-sized tomato and put it to her nose. She had washed all the tomatoes in advance and now the only smell that could have been wafting around her was that of tomato leaves. That strong and rather unpleasant aroma, which reminded her of green stems colouring her fingers and forearms in dark green. She even managed to get a few stripes on her face yesterday as well.

Hinata frowned and pulled the tomato away from her nose, concentrating her gaze onto its surface. It was so shiny that Hinata could see her reflection on it. She remembered her image on the mirror from yesterday, when Neji was cleaning her messy face.

It had been a huge embarrassment. Hinata put the tomato on the cutting board and pulled the last tool from the bag – a knife. When she had done picking up tomatoes yesterday, absolutely satisfied and already imagining how pleased the usually sour Uchiha would be, Neji had grabbed her by her hand immediately and, grunting with disdain, pulled her to a nice thick lawn in the middle of the garden. There Hinata was seated on the ground and Neji scrubbed the green stripes off her cheeks down to the very last molecule, using nothing but his handkerchief and an attitude of a nagging mother. "If the outsiders knew," he had said then. "What kind of a person you turn into once you enter a garden…"

True that. The knife sank into the tomato and pierced the vegetable in half. Essentially Hinata had a reputation of a taintless girl, but once she was in a garden… that was worse than a five-year-old in a sandbox. That's why she used to wash her clothes all by herself, so that her threads wouldn't scare the Branch family women to death. Therefore, she thought surprised as the cutting of tomato was strangely comforting her, most probably everyone had a weird obsession of some sort, so there was nothing extraordinary about Uchiha being mad about tomatoes.

Another precise cut and the red vegetable split easily into eight pieces. Hinata looked up – Uchiha was done with the juice already. The empty pack was standing at the very end of the patient's nightstand. She sighed, leaned down and opened a drawer under the nightstand. Her hunch was right – there was a small plate inside.

Hinata pulled the white china into the artificial light and set the pieces of tomato onto it nicely. She stared at her doing thoughtfully.

"Uchiha-san," she said. "Do you need salt?"

Sasuke straightened up.

"What?" he asked incredulously.

"Salt," Hinata repeated. "On the tomatoes."

"Why the hell would I be ruining the natural taste?" Uchiha frowned.

"I'm sorry I asked," Hinata muttered, putting the plate onto his lap.

She sat back onto the chair, watching him take the plate with both hands and pulling it closer, groping for the vegetable with his right hand. Eventually his long fingers gripped the first piece and he stuffed it into his mouth without any further delay.

A strong sigh escaped through his nose. It seemed it had been held in for long. It was so intensive that Hinata almost cut her finger while slicing the second tomato. She looked up stupefied. He was devouring the scarlet red vegetable like a gourmet. Though judging from the sounds he produced one could've thought he was doing something a lot more intimate.

Embarrassed by a sudden turn of her thoughts, Hinata looked down and finished slicing the second tomato. She cupped the pieces in her hands and carried them over to the plate which was empty already.

"Don't slice it."

"M?" she put the knife onto the nightstand.

"Don't slice it," Uchiha repeated, grabbing another piece. "How many have you brought in total?"

"Six," Hinata sat down. "But if I don't slice it, you may get the juice all over yourself while eating."

"Whatever," Sasuke shrugged off. "It's fresh though. Where did you get this?"

"It was a gift."

Sasuke stopped eating and if he weren't blind, he would've turned his emotionless face to Hinata, but now he merely lifted up his chin, expressing the Uchiha-level emotions.

"Yamato Nadeshiko," he blurted out and kept on eating.

Hinata weighed down her head, trying to create a mental image of Neji beating Sasuke to a pulp, but she was actually too kind to beat somebody up even in her imagination. On the other hand, she could just leave. She didn't have to listen to his opinion on various topics, especially the ones which had something to do with her. Actually, he didn't even talk about anybody else. It was strange he still had his voice.

Hinata was a person who would suffer every single hardship silently and then walk away, but now, as she glanced at a small watch on her wrist, she realized it was really late. A few minutes to midnight.

She was about to stand up, when Uchiha reached out his hand.

"If you're leaving, then leave the tomatoes here at least," he said.

Hinata pursed her lips and pulled the four remaining tomatoes out of the bag. She placed them into his lap, wiped the plate clean with the paper towels which she had brought with her, put the plate back to its place, put the knife and the cutting board back into the paper bag and folded it up. The tomato juice which was still on the board soaked through the bag, but Hinata didn't care. She was going to throw the bag out once she was back at home anyways.

She wiped her hands and turned to Uchiha. And blinked. There were only two tomatoes left in his lap, and another one was disappearing as she watched. Hinata cocked an eyebrow. The weird thing was that (just as she had said) the fresh tomatoes had this tendency to squirt out once one would bite them without care, and now the result of that was clearly visible on Uchiha's face: his chin was all shiny with tomato juice. The transparent liquid was dripping down his chin and running down his neck right to his collarbone, disappearing beneath the charmless hospital pyjama.

His fingers were all wet and stuck with tomato seeds, but Hinata had to realize horrified, that despite the wolfish eating habits, Uchiha still looked graceful. He still had that nonchalant aura he had been famous for back at school.

She took a roll of paper towels and began ripping it as if she were put under a spell, sitting there on that chair, waiting for him to finish. That individual was interesting mostly out of professional aspect. He didn't show half as much of enthusiasm in the past few months as they were trying to cure him, than in the past few minutes while he was devouring those tomatoes. That meant one of the two. First, the hospital food must've been a real muck. Or two, he needed help from a shrink.

Paper-thin hospital pyjama stuck to his skin around his collarbone. Right where the tomato juice had run down. Hinata wondered why he was wearing the hospital pyjama. Why was he lying in a ward and not at home in his bed or at the hospital rehabilitation centre, just as the rest of the normal patients, who could move around easily and who didn't need a constant intensive care?

Well, theoretically speaking, it was a lot more practical to live in the hospital, because the Uchiha block was almost as big as the Hyuuga one and it was basically impossible for one person to sustain (and heat up) that shell in winter. Hinata also guessed that he simply was afraid to roll out of bed and start walking around, because he would require somebody's help and Uchiha was too proud to be led around. That was the simplest explanation which did not require too much of a brain work. But the problem with Uchiha was that he was highly unpredictable. Take a scene from just a few minutes ago for example – who would have guessed that he was so mad about tomatoes?

Sasuke sighed and Hinata climbed out of her web of thoughts. Tomatoes were all gone.

She stood up gingerly, gripping the paper towels, and crept closer to the bed. She frowned. That booger was a well-built young man, whom she couldn't feel perfectly well just by standing at his side.

"Please excuse me," she said and sat on the edge of his bed so timidly that one would've though there was a nuclear bomb ticking underneath his mattress.

Sasuke froze feeling as the centre of gravity in his bed changed and something touched this right leg through the blanket. The next moment tender fingers gripped his wet right hand and he felt a rather rough material enfold his fingers. It was thin and flexible like a toilet paper.

"Leave it, it's not apples," he said.

Hinata didn't answer. She simply blotted up his right hand completely. Then, noticing that he was showing no signs of resistance, she took his left hand. Naturally, the tomato juice wasn't as sticky as the apple juice, but she had too kind of a heart to leave a grown-up guy sitting all smeared up like a small child. She handpicked the tomato seeds off his fingers and put his left hand to his side. His fingers were long yet strong and Hinata wouldn't have wanted to feel them on her neck. A small round bone was clearly visible on his wrist, and a small ant would've been able to take a roller-coaster ride on the veins, protruding on his forearm.

Hyuuga looked up, crumpling the wet pieces of paper towel and throwing them onto the chair. Now there were only his chin, neck and the collarbone left. She reached out her hand and stroked his face with the paper. Sasuke frowned and raised his chin up.

"I'm sorry," Hinata pulled back her hand. "Is it coarse?"

"No," he said.

Pursing her lips she dried off his chin carefully and stroked slowly down the shiny skin of his neck. At least he could've elaborated a bit more, she thought irritated. Now one didn't know what to expect, a thank you or a fatal jutsu. She tried to avoid looking into his eyes. They were dark and deep like two bottomless wells, and a single thought that they couldn't see a thing… made Hinata's stomach churn unpleasantly. Having these eyes and not seeing anything was the same as… as Naruto would say, it was the same as having a full bowl of steamy ramen and not eating it (or giving it to the dog).

Another piece of paper got soaking wet. Hinata threw it onto the chair and took another one. She ran the dry tissue right across the collarbone and stopped at the middle of it, marvelling at the contrast between his and her skin. Or the lack of it. Hinata knew she was unnaturally pale. All of the Hyuugas looked as though they got washed with the bleach (except for the hair), but even Neji's skin was darker than hers. Sasuke though was almost as pale as she was. Only the tint was different. Hinata was pink pale. Sasuke was yellow pale.

"Uchiha-san…" she uttered thoughtfully.

Sasuke pulled the pyjama collar down, exposing the last wet spot on his body.

"If you do something, do it to the very end," he declared, when Hinata's hand slid behind his clothing unwillingly.

"Sasuke-san…" she repeated insistently, blotting the last remains of tomato juice. "Do you ever go outside?"

"No."

"Don't they take patients outside?"

"At daytime."

"…" she stared as though Uchiha was a crackpot. "You're a very bad patient, Uchiha-san," she said eventually. "Usually patients collaborate with the people who want to help them. If they are sane that is."

Hinata stood up and Sasuke had to adapt to the new centre of gravity again. Hyuuga gathered the wet paper towel pieces and threw them into the bin at the corner of the ward, totally ignoring the rustle. So as she turned around she saw a half-naked Uchiha, offering her the marred pyjama shirt.

"There's a change in the closet," he said when Hinata, more dead than alive, took the greyish shirt dumbly, turned around and headed towards the wall-installed closet, trying to stop counting his scars in her mind.

She opened the closet, hung the shirt with a damp collar on a nail and took a clean shirt from a hanger. It still smelled of clothes softener (a very cheap softener). She counted to ten and closed the closet.

"So you would rather go outside at night?" she asked walking towards the bed and putting the garment on his knees.

"I wouldn't get a tan in winter anyways," he said reaching for the shirt. His arm and back muscles, which had been dormant for so long, tensed and relaxed.

Darn, he's reading my mind; Hinata clenched her teeth as Sasuke put on the shirt, hiding his pale torso.

"And what about training?" she asked suddenly.

Sasuke stopped straightening the twisted up sleeves and gave a wry smirk.

"Hyuuga, are you volunteering to train me? Tired of living, or something?"

Hinata frowned. She wasn't a perfect kunoichi. By all means, she preferred gardening to kunai throwing, but even Neji had told her a few times already that she had improved a lot since they began training together. Besides, Uchiha was blind now and he couldn't use sharingan… That was a question of her pride already.

"I'll come over next week and we'll see about that," Hinata declared, taking the wet bag from the nightstand and heading towards the door. "Good night, Uchiha-san."

As she closed the door, Sasuke flopped into his bed, frowning slightly at the hardness of the pillow. Right before he closed his eyes he realized he hadn't heard her switch off the light, but Uchiha merely shrugged it off. Electricity bills didn't bother him. The corners of his lips curled up in a ghost of a smile.

"We'll see about that…"

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To be continued...


	7. Chapter 7

**--7--**

Bad idea. It was a bad idea. Hinata leaned onto the wall, swallowed slowly and moved on. Snakes were wriggling in her stomach and every minute or so a snake was threatening to slither out, but Hinata kept on treading down a snowy street, cursing herself for an nth time for her stupid habit of keeping promises.

The week had started with a blast. She finally had accepted Kiba's invitation and gone over to a bar with her teammates to celebrate her birthday. "You're really an adult now, Hinata-chan~" Kiba had stated then energetically, accompanied by Akamaru's bark. The bar where dogs were allowed must've been rather shady, but eventually Team 10 joined them as well with the irritated Shikamaru ahead of the pack ("How troublesome…"), and then it really started.

Hinata couldn't really tell how drunk she was when she suddenly decided to rival Chouji in an ad-lib drinking contest, but everything ended up in her being carried home on Akamaru's back early the next morning and her teammates were brave enough to face fuming Neji and his threats to cripple them (part of their courage must have lain in the alcohol most probably).

The cousin help Hinata hide her little adventure from the family, but she had spent an entire morning hugging the toilet and grumbling something incoherent about a weird fish, whenever the Branch women asked her if she was fine. Needless to say, that Hinata was feeling terrible and she would have loved to dive into her bed after a sleepless night, but her head was still hazy since that tardy birthday party, as the Hyuuga mansion celebrated the New Year the very same night and she received another dose of alcohol (though not that big), and it was enough for her brain to enter hibernation mode again.

What was more, once everybody went to sleep; she stayed up all night to clean the place, because it was the duty of the landlady. Neji watched her pick up the garbage with an aching heart, but he couldn't help her, because right after midnight he had to leave on a mission for Suna. Though no matter how disappointed Neji was, his frustration was only half of what Shikamaru was feeling. By the orders of the Fifth Shikamaru had to go along with Neji and he didn't stop grumbling: "How troublesome, meeting that wearisome woman again, how troublesome…" Therefore, taking comfort in comrade's distress (and realizing his situation was a lot better), Neji picked up all the garbage from the ground on his way out and, wishing Hinata all the best and a health of steel, he disappeared like a puff of smoke. An order was an order after all. Tsunade would have slashed all of his body hair (and some limbs along the way) off if he didn't obey the command.

Hinata wouldn't have been the Hinata if she hadn't cleaned every single corner of the house. And when her chores were over it was morning already, time for breakfast and the usual daily routine.

Her eyes were usually misty with a light tint of lavender, but now they were bloodshot and an outsider could've thought that the Hyuuga had performed a special surgery to acquire her own personal sharingan.

Over 48 hours of sleeplessness and the girl halted in front of the hospital gate, trying to hold back the vomit, marvelling at her own condition. To be more exact, she was surprised she was still able to walk. Autopilot was a wonderful thing after all. Human body was capable of doing so many things without any brain interference. But now she frowned and made herself think.

It was close to midnight when she passed through the gate wobbly and entered the building. Her heart was beating like mad, and the echo of the pulse reverberated painfully in her temples, nose and eyes. Hinata closed them and moved forward, groping the walls and giving her eyes a little bit of rest. At first it had only been a terrible stomach ache, now she didn't know what was worse – stomach in constant cramps or insomnia-heavy head.

She set her foot carefully on the first step of the stairs and began climbing up, partially glad that Uchiha couldn't see her. She must've looked like a ghost now. Hinata chuckled, holding at the rail and moving upwards. If anyone was to see Uchiha and Hyuuga together now, they must've seemed like a Grim Reaper and a Ghost. Two creatures from out of this world, lost in the Land of Fire.

Invisible clutches gripped her throat and Hinata stopped alarmed in the middle of stairwell landing. She took a deep and calm breath, trying to push that nauseous lump back where it belonged. The scent of medicine and disinfectants wafting around the hospital corridors didn't help her much either. She took another deep breath, unable to understand how come her stomach still had enough power to cause these tremors. After two days of constant contractions it should have been so tired that… well, it should have been a small wrinkly bag right now down there, next to the pancreas and liver. Hinata didn't eat anything on purpose, so that stupid thing wouldn't have what to throw out again. She only drank water, because her mouth was constantly dry.

Stupid, stupid thing, she frowned and moved on. The greenish corridor was close. Even though her brain could hardly process the smallest of signals and it was hard to think, Hinata realized one thing – her vague training promise would be left unfulfilled today. Well, she was never going to train for real with Uchiha Sasuke anyways. Blind as he was, he was still an S-class shinobi. Even though it was a matter of her pride, Hinata still preferred intact bones more. Besides she was sure that he would have forgotten everything by now.

***

That was a dilemma. To leave the bed or not to leave. To dress up or not. He was partially marvelling at Hyuuga's persistence, which led to conclusion that she would be showing up today as well, but Sasuke was too… … … well, it was embarrassing to admit, but he was too LAZY to get out of bed, seriously. Psychological issues and the artificial blindness aside, he had another reason which didn't let him go outside – he got used to doing nothing. Not because he was a sponger by nature, but he simply couldn't see (well, figuratively speaking) anything which would interest him. Konoha and all the lands outside the borders of the Land of Fire had nothing for him to offer, which would have made him leave the bed…

Except for tomatoes maybe.

But that was another topic.

Though Hyuuga Hinata had brought him tomatoes so, Sasuke thought in his perpetual darkness, he could at least try a tiny little bit. Just a teeny weeny bitsy bit. He opened his eyes out of pure habit and sat up. He wasn't disturbed by the possibility of remaining blind for the rest of his life. When you have nothing that interests you and when you don't bother looking at anything while you still can see something, then you really can't be bothered by the fact that you're blind.

On the other hand, as he was a 100% male he still had a bit of pride and a well-developed narcissism. He had noticed a few times already, while showering in the morning, that in some parts of his body the proportion of muscles and sinews had decreased significantly. It was a result of staying in the same room for a few months. There were times when he would walk outside in winter wearing nothing but a t-shirt and a thick scarf on his neck – all in order for people to marvel at his appearance. He never emphasized that, but he sometimes liked that attention of the general public. Except for those screaming girls with a blood-pumping body parts on their faces instead of their eyeballs.

He frowned and, growling silently (because there was no other way to name that sound), he pushed the blanket off him. It was warm in the ward, but his feet felt a light pinch of the cool. Sasuke weighed his head to the left, pulling the raven-black hair away from his right ear. He couldn't hear any wind, but he could clearly discern some feeble sounds somewhere in front of him and above his head. They were far clearer than the muted steps in the corridor, so Sasuke decided that the coolness was coming from a slightly opened window.

Turning right, Sasuke lowered his legs carefully on the ground, looking for the slippers somewhere near his bed with his toes and eventually putting them on. Initially, he was going to change into his clothes, which were stuck somewhere deep inside the closet, but the steps he had register before turned out to be Hyuuga's and he decided not to bother yet.

She was as regular as clockwork. Though at first it was hard to recognize the steps, because they were somewhat incoherent. As if she was wobbling or something. Nevertheless, as he listened closer, Sasuke drew a conclusion, that it was her. And she was coming closer.

Sasuke stood up. His bed creaked silently. The sunken in dark shinobi turned right and headed towards the door slowly, shuffling his feet not because he was afraid of moving too fast and hitting something, but because he thought he was bored out of his mind. Sasuke reached out his left hand and, after a few more creepy steps, his fingers touched the door. He gripped the handle almost instantaneously and began waiting for those spiritless steps outside in the corridor to come closer and stop eventually.

When periods in between steps became really long and when he could practically touch the sound physically, Sasuke gripped the door handle and gave it a turn.

She didn't really grasp what was going on, because, no matter how tired her brain would've been, it still could measure the distance between her fist and the door correctly. She couldn't tell why she decided to knock, it must've been the Hyuuga upbringing, but that was it – as she determined the distance between her fist and the door correctly, she also unconsciously decided to lean upon the door for a while. She felt so faint; she could actually just flop over and fall asleep.

However, when her hand didn't meet any obstacle, the signal saying that something was wrong was processed too late. Hinata leaned forward formidably and eventually, some thirty centimetres further from the original intersection, her fingers reached the obstacle nevertheless. And not only her fingers. She hung onto Uchiha Sasuke in 70 degrees angle. Her nose stuck into his pyjama-covered chest, and her hands snatched onto his shoulders like kitten paws.

The question was why didn't he move out of the way? He was blind alright, but he still should've felt a misbalanced kunoichi falling onto him. Perhaps he simply thought that by falling face-flat on the ground Hinata (especially her crushed nose) would ruin his floor, so he kept on standing. And Hinata was really thankful he'd stopped her flight downhill, but there was something else coming right up.

An alarm went off in her hand, but Hinata couldn't take a deep breath. There was not even a sign of fresh air. She just registered a faint smell of sweat and something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Whatever it was, she wasn't quite interested in the names of the scents right now, because her mind was preoccupied with her internal organs. With only one to be exact. The one which was able to become 25 times bigger its natural size, the one which was having dangerous contractions right now.

And when Sasuke touched her elbows with intention to push her away, Hinata couldn't take it anymore. Her overstressed stomach got rid of the last cup of water she had had an hour ago, providing Uchiha's pyjama with a new decoration. Hinata felt him flinch and push her away, gripping her arms tightly. She didn't dare to look up. She wanted to just drop dead and sleep till the world's end. She coughed. Sasuke was still keeping his hold on her.

"Oh wow," she heard a sneer in his otherwise calm voice, and she shivered with disgust, when he eventually let go of her right arm and twitched at his ruined pyjama. "And I was secretly hoping to receive tomatoes again…"

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To be continued...


	8. Chapter 8

**--8--**

Hinata coughed and cupped her mouth, trying to tame another wave coming. Feeling a quiver all over her body, Sasuke gripped her elbow firmly and pushed her into the ward.

"Bathroom's behind the door near the window," he said.

Hinata crossed the whole ward stumbling, opened the white door and hugged the toilet relieved. Silence was probably an inborn feature of all Hyuuga women, because Sasuke couldn't hear any other sound except for one type of liquid colliding with the other. As if someone was pouring water into water-closet. But that was not water. And Sasuke could smell it alright. Gastric juices. Slightly diluted by probably a cup of water drunk somewhat an hour ago. He twitched at his pyjama, which was sticking to his body already, and he breathed in with his nose furrowed. And he furrowed even more.

Well, at least she hadn't eaten ramen, meat or vegetables. Then the view would've been a lot more colourful. Or the smell, to be more exact. He pulled off the pyjama shirt disgusted, careful about not smearing his hair, and threw the shirt onto the ground. After a few seconds of fumbling about, he eventually located the closet at the other end of the room and opened it. He ran his fingers over hangers, searching for warmer clothes. Although he convinced the personnel that he was going to stay in his ward during the whole period of hospitalization, Sakura would persistently bring him a new change of clothes every other week. And she was more than eager to announce him about that every single time.

Haruno wasn't insolent enough to sneak into the Uchiha mansion and bring him his father's old clothes (they must've been out of fashion and probably totally tattered anyways). So she would always buy him, as Sasuke guessed, second-handed clothes. Ever since he'd returned to Konoha, he hadn't spent more than two nights at his old place. So his uniform and all of his belongings were scattered all over the town. At Kakashi's lair, at Naruto's, at Tsunade's tower, where he'd spent some time while being supervised as a menace for the public, and even at the Nara place in Shikamaru's room (he still had no idea how he ended up in that corner of Konoha), and well… eventually at the hospital.

His fingers gripped a soft woolly fabric and Sasuke took off the hanger frowning. He pulled the cloth out of the closet. After a bit more of touching he realized that it was a thick, skin-friendly sweater, knitted in big stitches. Will do. Sasuke threw the sweater along with the hanger onto his bed. Or at least where he thought his bed was and he kept on exploring his closet. Come to think of it, it was a whole new world to him, even though the closet was situated some few metres away from his bed.

The fingers came across another woolly thing and, judging by its length, Sasuke decided it was a scarf. Will do. A shudder ran down his back and he didn't pull away until he found a few more shirts, thick pants and leather boots with small straps all over, lined with fur inside. He was partially glad to find shoes with long bootlegs. At least he wouldn't have to worry about mismatched socks this way.

He got into the pants which were a little bit loose, and put on the socks. Then he put on the boots (they were exactly his size), tucked his pants into the bootlegs and treaded slowly towards the bathroom. He heard Hyuuga taking deep breaths. In order not to trip over the kneeling Hinata, he bypassed the whole perimeter of a small bathroom along the wall. And when he eventually reached the sink, he turned the warm tap on.

He did everything so silently, that Hinata flinched alarmed and looked up. She still had been smart enough to snatch all of her hair before assaulting the toilet, so there were no strands stuck to her face and she could clearly see half-naked Uchiha Sasuke, bent over the sink, washing his own chest. His skin was almost as white as his boots. Hinata blinked. White boots didn't really match Uchiha's reputation and it made this whole situation rather funny, but she still felt oppressed by his tall figure.

"Wha—what are you doing?" she asked timidly.

"Well, what does it look like?" he said without turning around. "Your vomit penetrated right through."

Hinata weighed down her had, reaching out her hand towards the roll of toilet paper, hung on the wall.

"I'm sorry…"

"If you can't drink, drink kefir*," he declared straightening up and grabbing a dry towel from a rack.

Hinata didn't answer. She didn't care. She just stood up slowly and approached the sink, where Sasuke was drying his chest. She turned the tap on again and leaned down to the water stream, with intention to rinse her mouth.

"Hurry up," he said, leaving the bathroom.

"M?" she was clueless with her mouth still full of water.

"Out of two us, you're the one in a desperate need of a fresh air," he put on a first layer of shirt and shook his head. His black hair dishevelled at all directions. "Besides, I can't risk getting another puddle. This time on the floor. I need to sleep here, you know."

"I don't need fresh air, I need a bed," Hinata mumbled walking out of the bathroom, leaning against the wall.

"You're welcome," Sasuke shrugged, pointing at his bed. "Just don't puke on my pillow."

Hinata frowned. He spoke of it so simply and casually, as if he would have suffered alcohol poisoning induced puking every single day back in his teen years. As he was putting another layer of shirt, she suddenly realized that he most probably was going to go outside without a warm jacket on, but she had no power to object that. Not to mention that seeing the dirty shirt lying on the floor gave her a really unpleasant pang in her chest.

She bent down to pick it up.

"I'll wash it," she said silently standing up and heading towards the bathroom again.

In the meantime Sasuke had already put on a huge black sweater and wrapped his neck in a long grey scarf. He felt her walking by and stopped her by reaching out his hand. His fingers touched her shoulder. Tracing down the whole length of her arm to her hand, he grabbed a corner of the pyjama shirt and she had no other choice, but to let go of the cloth. Uchiha stretched out his arm, holding the shirt far away from him, as if the shirt was a kid who'd just pooped.

"If I were you," he uttered in a calm voice. "I'd throw it out. And since it's my shirt, this is exactly what we're going to do."

Hinata merely swallowed and shrugged. Eventually she walked closer and got a hold of Sasuke's elbow timidly yet firmly. Because of the sweater it was so soft and nice to hold, that she hugged it tight insensibly, and she almost put her head on his shoulder, but she pulled herself together at the last second. Sasuke blinked. His left arm was in a firm grip and his elbow was ground into something soft. One didn't have to be a genius to understand. She was wearing a fluffy Eskimo jacket, but even through all of the woolly layers Uchiha realized that Hyuuga was far more endowed by nature than, say, Haruno Sakura.

"Explanation?" he raised his eyebrows, trying to free his arm of her grip.

"You need to be led," Hinata said in a dead voice, without any intention of letting go. She took a step forward.

Sasuke was blind for the first time in his life, but even so, he would've been able to follow the echo of her steps and walk around. He was a ninja after all. But now, judging from her voice and uneven breath, he realized that Hyuuga was in a no-threatening condition. Even the worst threat wouldn't have worked on her now. Autopilot was a dangerous thing. So eventually he let her lead him out of the ward without any resistance.

The ruined pyjama shirt was thrown into the very first bin they came across, in the corner of the greenish corridor. And it wasn't that hard to walk. Hinata would say from time to time "stairs" or "right", or "left". Even though Sasuke had to admit that it took him three minutes at least to learn how to use his newly acquired senses and how to trust that wobbly girl stuck to his side.

The hospital receptionist on duty didn't say a word as they left through the main door outside. He just raised his eyebrows at the weird couple. The rest did not matter. Technically Uchiha was healthy and he had a right to leave the hospital any time he wanted to. So nobody tried to stop them and they entered a refreshing and starry winter night.

Vapour escaped Sasuke's mouth, when they descended the main stairs and headed down the polished path. The sub-zero temperature was pinching at his cheeks lightly, but the sweater was really helluva warm and he didn't feel a light wind, whirling around his back. The path was covered in a new layer of snow and it crunched beneath their feet.

Feeling the fresh air, Hinata opened her eyes and took a deep breath. She took a look around as if seeing night for the first time and sighed. It was beautiful. The hospital yard was lit by a silver light of the full moon. The snow made everything even brighter and it was actually possible to discern colours. The leafless trees were stretching their frozen branches up to the sky. Hoarfrost and a glitter now made these branches look like seasonal lollipops. Hinata glanced at Sasuke. His dark eyes were set onto something in the distance and she regretted he couldn't see it all.

She wanted to find out the cause of his eyes disease, but what had she been doing this week? She'd helped her family with the New Year party and she'd got totally wasted. What was more; she hadn't had a sleep for three days.

Hinata noticed a wooden bench under one frozen tree, and she pulled Sasuke along towards it. They moved across a snow-covered lawn and with every step they made, the snow crunched louder. Eventually Hinata flopped onto the bench and sighed. Sasuke sat down near her slowly, hiding his hands in his long sweater sleeves. If it weren't for the hospital environment and the dark night, one would have thought that there was a photoshoot going on, and he was a model of a new season fashion in the ninja world.

Hinata's stomach growled. Sasuke sniffed.

"What did you drink, Hyuuga?"

"I haven't slept for three days…" Hinata answered out of the blue.

I can tell that, Uchiha thought.

"Three days without sleep and food?" he asked.

"If I were to eat, I'd throw up," she said silently.

"If you were to eat, you'd feel better," Uchiha declared assuredly. "That's the reason why you're wobbling. You're hungry."

Hinata wanted to say that even a thought of food would make her nauseous, but then she had this vision of a huge bowl of ramen with hot steamy noodles, vegetables, egg and all the others ingredients, and she covered her mouth alarmed, when her stomach contracted again.

"Don't puke," Sasuke warned her.

"I won't," Hinata assured him and put her hand down. She looked up at the sky through the naked tree branches.

It was really calm and quiet all around. Sasuke was trying to catch any sound around him with his eyes closed. The weather was cold, but it was light, and he felt as if a rock had rolled off his chest. There was definitely a difference in pressure between here and the ward. He was listening to the steps coming from the street, behind the hospital gate. Somewhere in Konoha a ninja was running up and down the roofs of the houses. Judging from the speed Sasuke guessed it was someone from ANBU. He was also surprised his ears could catch such a distant sound. It must've had something to do with the inborn ninja abilities, when actually he didn't even need to see, hear or touch lots of things. He just felt it with his whole entity.

He stopped wandering with his thoughts and ears through distant neighbourhoods. He came back to the hospital bench which gradually began chilling his butt. Uchiha was listening to the calm breathing of the girl and for one minute his brain focused on the warmth, emanating somewhere close to his right thigh, where their legs were touching. The cold bench and Hyuuga's leg formed a contrast. Uchiha felt as if he had one hand in icy water, and the other one – in boiling water. And there was no way to create an acceptable balance.

Sasuke wanted to get up, when a stiff thing bumped his shoulder and he almost flinched. But he merely turned his head left and angled it slightly. It was enough for his nose and lips to touch her hair and the origins of the unidentified heavy object became clear. His hands felt too cosy in his sleeves to actually pull them out now and touch the foreign body. So he figured it out with his head (literally and figuratively speaking).

"Don't drool on my sweater," he said.

She didn't reply and her breathing was too calm, so Sasuke frowned.

"Hyuuga?" he gave his shoulder a jolt and Hyuuga's head slid down his chest, and flopped onto his lap, right where the lower folds of the sweater were curling.

His right leg was weighed down by half of Hyuuga' body, when she fell into his lap being totally unconscious. The deep and silent breathing manifested that she fell asleep. Sasuke sighed and pulled his right hand from a broad warm sleeve. His fingers landed on Hinata's silky hair slowly. He was going to pull back the hand immediately, but he didn't even register as he stroked her hair. Then again. And again. A shudder ran down Uchiha's back. Hyuuga Hinata settled into his lap like a very rare kind of tomato.

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* **Kefir** is a fermented milk drink that originated in the Caucasus region. Since it's fermented, some varieties have a basically non-existent percentage of alcohol in it, but for people with low-tolerance, if they drink too much, it's really possible to get dizzy xD. As a matter of fact, kefir is really good with fried potatoes. Author's word of honour~

To be continued…


	9. Chapter 9

**--9--**

It was like unfolding a huge map on a plain ground. As if everything was submerged into darkness and the map lines were a negative, drawn in white lines. The whole relief of Konoha was slit and reversed a few times, as if it were a geometry lesson. It was a dimensional picture, woven in thin threads. It would have disappeared once one would've lost his concentration. Focus, focus. Explicit framework of Konoha was reversed a few more times in a dark space until finally the right angle was found. The hospital yard perspective.

Sasuke kicked the pillar of the hospital gates, making sure he really was where he imagined himself to be. He jolted the load on his shoulders a bit higher, gripping her legs firmly, locking them with his elbows. Hyuuga Hinata was hanging onto his back like a bag of potatoes, nose buried into turtleneck collar. Her arms dangled at his chest and if it wasn't for the slight strain in her muscles, one could've thought there was a corpse settled onto his hump.

It was hard to say why it ended up like this. There were plenty of reasons. Though the question was whether it was possible to call it a dénouement at all. Somehow Sasuke felt that his woes were only beginning. He just had to put his thoughts into place.

First of all, despite the fact that part of his body had no problem with sitting on the bench and receiving the warmth Hinata was giving him, eventually it caused some inconveniency. There was no balance. After long sitting in one place his back was dead and little by little the chill began penetrating through the thick sweater towards his spine. In the meantime his right leg went numb and started sweating. He was just glad it was only a leg. Good thing Hyuuga hadn't decided to sleep on his arm. Perhaps it sounds nice and romantic in books, but those people who had ever experienced it know what torture it is to suffer somebody's head on your arm for a few hours. A total death to blood circulation.

So he had to stir his stiff body. Secondly, he wasn't a pervert, but a slight touch was enough to realize that Hyuuga was gradually getting cold. Not only because of the sub-zero temperature. She was also experiencing an obvious alcohol poisoning (and probably was a victim to cross contamination too). He considered waking her up and dragging her back to the hospital, but as he had finally come into the daylight after a few months… or a nightlight to be exact (on the other hand, he didn't care about the light at all), Uchiha didn't want to return to that small ward just like that. After all, he had no official reason to stay in the hospital 24/7. He just had to show up regularly for inspection and no one would have ever nagged him afterwards. So there were only two resorts left – take her either to Hyuuga or Uchiha domain. But the Uchiha mansion now was colder than the winter itself and that kind of environment was definitely not good for a sick person. That left him with nothing else but the Hyuuga estate for an option.

Wandering around the town in the middle of the night, with an heir of one of the most famous clans of Konoha on your back… for a blind person it was a challenge. But Uchiha Sasuke wouldn't have been the Uchiha Sasuke if he hadn't accepted the challenge. As far as the stubbornness was concerned, he was bound to break through a wall with his head, as long as it would've proved something to the people around him. Partially this kind of behaviour was programmed in his blood, but on the other hand, he had taken over some of the persistency traits from one particular dumbass blond. And there was nothing you could do about it – years of mutual experience make people alike.

It was pretty easy to get Hyuuga onto his back, it was also easy to leave the hospital yard, but right afterwards a long and slow walk began. He moved back and forth, stopping at every crossing and checking whether he really was where he imagined himself to be, checking whether that map in his head matched the real grounds. Sometimes he even counted his steps in order not to get lost. He was too proud to wake Hyuuga up and too stubborn to give up. He was a shinobi. Blindness wasn't supposed to be an obstacle.

The full moon illuminated every street brightly, leaving some houses in shadows. As Sasuke in white boots walked down a snowy street his shadow got longer and longer, until eventually he turned left slowly and disappeared behind a corner.

Hinata heaved a tired sigh and turned her head to other direction. Her nose was no longer buried in the soft sweater. It disappeared into the soft raven-black hair. Sasuke flinched when a cold tip of her nose touched his neck. Her arms sort of came to life and in a reflex action pressed to his chest tightly. She stuck to him. Sasuke muttered something incoherently at the back of his throat. It wasn't even a word. Only a slight growl, which made his chest vibrate.

It was fine until she was motionless. But if she was going to start squirming around, the map in his head was bound to disappear. While she remained motionless, she was just a weird girl, having a severe case of hangover. While she remained motionless, that girl was Hyuuga Hinata, a member of untouchable and exclusive clan of Konoha. When she moved, Hyuuga Hinata became a bothersome twinge, which, first of all, had made his leg go numb in the hospital yard, and now it made him sweat, because Sasuke had weaned off physical exercise during these few months. It's not that she was heavy. Uchiha could've betted that Haruno Sakura large-bones weighed a lot more, but then he thought with a sneer that perhaps Hyuuga's chest made up half of her weight.

And he came to a halt. Hair covered his face. No, wait a sec… Sasuke swallowed and made his brain think logically. If somebody's boobs made half the weight of a human body… that was the Fifth's boobs. That woman was in a whole league of her own. He sometimes had trouble understanding, how she was able to fight with additional weight like that. Hinata could never match her, though there was no need to. She was really… proportionally built. And he would've never begun thinking of it, if it weren't for the very same body parts, he was secretly comparing… Uchiha could feel everything even through his thick sweater and Hyuuga's Eskimo jacket. He bit his lip and gripped her legs more firmly, throwing waist images out of his head and going back to the sterile map draft in his mind.

After a few more turns to the left and to the right he had already cursed himself thrice for letting his thoughts wander in places, where they usually stray when one is fourteen or sixteen years old. He was Uchiha Sasuke. Cold and unapproachable. He had not only an image to maintain. He had to take care of his sanity as well. Naruto would mock him to death if he saw Sasuke being mad about some thing, or ever worse – about a person. He would have never let anyone see him broken-down or, God forbid, embarrassed. Or even worse – blushing in scarlet red up to the tips of his ears. He could only loosen up a little bit at night time.

Having no wish to delve into the frayed maze of his own conscious, he decided that his thoughts strayed under the influence of fresh air, and he moved on slowly, treading down the streets of Konoha. There was no reason to rummage around causes and results. Sasuke had noticed a long time ago that his iron logic was steadfast when it concerned fighting and ninja business. His intelligence was perhaps only second to that of Kakashi or Shikamaru. But when it boiled down to true-life stuff, he could never trust logics. He could never explain something rationally. During certain decision making process his mind would just shut off and Uchiha would take instinctive action. That would result in the weirdest outcome ever.

That was how he became best friends with Naruto. That was how he ended up being where he was now, and he couldn't explain why he was doing that. Figuratively speaking, he was being pulled forwards like an obedient doll, by some imaginary hook at his chest.

Sasuke was listening to everything around him. A beam cracked at a house nearby. A cat jumped down a porch and minced across the street (Sasuke didn't care whether it was black or not). He was absorbing his own steps, listening to the snow crunch beneath his leather boots. He would hear a person or two pass by them from time to time, but nobody paid much attention to them. It was neither shinobi nor market district. It was just a calm residential section. If somebody had looked at them closely, they would've thought that a guy was helping a girl to get back home after a night of unlimited drinking. Which, when you think about it, was kind of true. Kind of.

A dog barked in a distance and Sasuke stopped. According to his calculation, there was only one block left to Hyuuga domain and, even though he like totally didn't give a shit about anything, he still didn't want to show up at the Hyuuga doorstep with Hinata on his back. He still wanted to live carefree for a little while.

"Hyuuga…" he said angling his head and Hinata's forehead slid onto his shoulder. She was still sleeping.

"Hey…" Sasuke gave her a little jolt, but there was still no answer.

Uchiha released a silent growl.

"Oy, Hinata," he jumped up and landed down gracelessly, in order to shake her properly. "_Moshi moshi~!_"

"Hn!" Hinata closed her eyes tight, when her chin hit something hard and her teeth clattered painfully. The mist in her head dispersed a little bit, but once she was perfectly awake, she felt an invisible hammer pound her brain again.

She opened her eyes slowly and almost got a heart attack. Uchiha's face was way too close. It was so close that it was bound to make her cross-eyed. She took a deep and sudden breath. She was about to pull back, but then to her horror she realized she wasn't sitting on the bench anymore.

"U—Uchiha… kun?" she stuttered.

Hot air wafted into his face and Sasuke turned his head away, surprised she didn't have a bad breath.

"Is your place far from here?" he asked.

Hinata looked around stupefied, forgetting all the inconveniencies. Her home wasn't in sight, but she knew this street all too well. Her fingers gripped Sasuke's sweater tightly. A thought tornado stormed in her head, and she couldn't discern anything certain. Questions and statements popped up one after another.

How did he manage to find his way here from the hospital? What an embarrassment to be carried like that. Why did Uchiha leave the hospital in the first place? Why is he carrying me? Why am I not on the ground yet? Why did I fall asleep? Why does my head still hurt? What will my family say when…?

Hinata squeaked silently and stared at Uchiha's profile in astonishment. There was no way she could go back home like this. With Uchiha or without him, it was too late anyways. She didn't know how long he took wandering around the streets of Konoha. What was more, her head still hurt terribly and if she'd had to listen to the lashing of her family… she would've rather head-butted a wall. If she could only find some haven… but then what about Uchiha… she had to bring him back to the hospital.

"I… don't want to go home," she said.

Sasuke sighed and let go of her legs, letting her slide down his back onto the ground. The moment she touched the paving, Hinata let go of his neck and Sasuke turned to face her. His pupils were directed downwards and to Hinata it seemed as if he was looking directly at her.

"Then what do you suggest?" he asked calmly.

Hinata swallowed. As she sobered up a little bit, she noticed that… no, she had never noticed before that Uchiha was so tall. Naturally, he wasn't as tall as Neji, but she was used to lying-in-bed Sasuke and now, as she had to recline her head a little bit in order to look at his face… it was weird. And slightly scary.

"Wa—walk you back to the hospital?" she suggested.

Sasuke furrowed his nose.

"Don't want to."

"But…" Hinata bit her lip. "I can't leave you…"

"Then don't."

She blinked. What to do? What to do? One thought was followed by another and the fact, that he was full of contradictions himself, really wasn't helping. It was a weird situation and she needed a solution. She knew only one place where she was able to feel like home, but Uchiha… letting him in there… It would mean nothing to him, but she didn't want anything SACRED to her to be trampled upon.

He was standing in the middle of a street. In the middle of winter. With white leather boots and a thick woolly sweater on. And Hinata could see the skin on his neck getting goosebumps where the collar of the sweater was bent backwards. And she made up her mind.

Hinata reached out her hand and took a hold of Sasuke's palm. His fingers were numb and ice-cold. Hinata shuddered. She pulled mittens out of her jacket pockets and put them on Sasuke's hands without a single word. They were definitely too small, but she made it work by pulling down the long sweater sleeves onto his wrists. She was slightly surprised that he wasn't resisting at all.

She took his right hand firmly.

"Let's go."

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To be continued…


	10. Chapter 10

**--10--**

Eyelids were heavy, but a particular airiness in her head was persistent enough in telling that she had enough of rest. She whined and squirmed around, burying her nose into a soft and tender pillow. As slumber was slowly retreating, Hinata took a deep breath and her brain clouded over, as if she had just inhaled some hallucinogenic substance. As if there was a special pressure at the top of her head, which squeezed her brain and pulled a dark curtain over her conscious. And the bizarre thing was – she liked this sensation.

She took another deep breath, absorbing greedily this strong yet fresh scent, trying to bury herself completely into the woolly pillow. He resembled a cat, stretching and rubbing into a toy she loved. Hinata whined again and opened her eyes slowly. And an alarm went off in her head.

The pillow was dark and inwrought with various shapes. Hinata knew for sure that her pillow was white. A bird chirped above her head and Hinata sat up in a flash. She blinked rapidly as there was a bright light, penetrating her eyes, and her face was slightly swollen. A few black-blue strands were wildly dishevelled at the top of her head.

It was green all around. Flowers of various colours were blooming. Feathery light butterflies were fluttering around them. The garden, Hinata remembered and looked down. She had been lying on a lush lawn, in between flower and vegetable beds, and her right hand was clutching… a dark sweater. It took a fractional part of a nanosecond for her to realize, whom that sweater belonged to. Hyuuga sprang back from the garment as if she'd got burned.

But her right hand kept on clutching the sleeve of the sweater. Hinata blinked and reached out her left hand, feeling slightly at ease. Gripping the garment firmly, she drew it to her face and, her suspicion growing; she closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose. Her senses were taken over by the same scent and she pulled the sweater away surprised. It was neither perfume nor naphthalene. Just some natural scent soaked into the garment. And she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Hinata stood up with the sweater in hand, looking around. She couldn't remember properly when and how she'd fallen asleep, but the fact that she'd dragged Uchiha into her haven, remained deeply engraved in her memory.

Compared to her first journey to the garden, when everything had happened so quickly, when everything basically had blurred in front of her eyes, yesterday them both crossed the forest slowly and carefully. As she led him, keeping a hold of his hand, Hinata could feel how tense Uchiha was.

It was a strange tension, because his muscles were relaxed, his breath and steps were even… One wouldn't have even thought that this individual was blind. But that weird tension was suspended in the air, as if it was electric and one could expect sparks any minute.

She then had tried not to notice it and just kept on moving. Passing the more complicated obstacles, and warning Sasuke about pits and humps in the way. Apart from those few words, which saved him from stumbling, they didn't talk at all. They were followed only by the sounds of occasionally cracking dry branches and the crunching snow beneath their feet.

Even when they were finally in the garden, Hinata hadn't explained anything. She just wobbled over to the lawn in between the flower and vegetable beds, and collapsed there, losing her conscious. She didn't know what happened to Sasuke.

She gripped the sweater tightly and left the lawn, walking down the lush beds of flowers towards the exit. She stopped after a few more steps and started down at the dark ground in between the beds. Her right foot was standing next to a deeply imprinted footstep. And it was too big to be hers. Following the elaborate footsteps with her eyes she noticed that they rimmed every single bed and every single path. As if the owner of the footsteps had been trying to measure the garden and form a general image of it.

Sensitive ear caught a faint sound and she looked up in a flash only to see Uchiha flying into her at full speed. She didn't release a sound. Her eyes turned the size of her fists. Her head still ached a little bit, but she perked up immediately and an entity, hiding in a dark corner of her brain, took over her body.

The foot shod with white boot was almost there, when Hinata threw the sweater up and, once Uchiha's right foot was caught into its folds, she pulled the garment down. Sasuke had no other option left than to somersault above Hyuuga and reach out his right hand forwards, in order to buffer the impact.

He turned over suspended above Hinata and fell straight headfirst onto the ground. But once his right palm reclined against the ground, he pushed off the surface like on a spring. He turned another 360 degrees air-borne and landed some 10 metres away from her, ploughing deep tracks with his feet.

Hinata turned to face him immediately. The sweater was down on the ground already and she was ready to defend in any way possible. Her heart was beating like a bird, locked in a cage tad too small. She felt as if she had been kicked out of the bed into a battlefield. Well, it was something like that anyways. Hinata eyed Sasuke from head to toes.

He was kneeling on his right knee, his left leg was pulled back right under him, his right hand was leaning on the ground. Soil was collecting beneath his fingernails. Left without his sweater, he was now wearing a dark tanktop, which only emphasized his pale skin and it seemed it was shining. Hinata shook her head, bending her fingers and getting ready to fight in the Hyuuga style. She didn't want to fight him. She didn't even want to train with him. She had no idea what was wrong with him. On the other hand, Uchiha was prone to the weirdest provocations ever – it could've even been a butterfly landing on his shoulder.

The raven-black hair was damp with sweat and stuck to his forehead. His eyes were open and they stared at something right in front of him, but Hinata could see he was listening. Hinata felt a nerve twitch somewhere deep inside. She couldn't tell exactly what nerve it was. Her mind told her that she couldn't fight Uchiha, because:

* he was too dangerous; and

* he was blind and it would've been unfair to use byakugan against him.

But her whole body was basically shaking in excitement, eager about the oncoming clash.

"U…" she sighed. "Uchiha-kun… why? How?" she blinked.

"You breathe too loud," Sasuke breathed and pounced forward, like a cat chasing a mouse.

Hinata crossed her arms and fended his attack, jumping backwards and avoiding his foot, targeted directly at her face. While she was thinking feverishly, what the hell was wrong with him, her body did the entire job automatically, trying to avoid Uchiha's attacks. It was strange, but Hinata had no fear. She just didn't want to train so early in the morning.

She looked up, trying to make sure through the glassy roof of the garden, whether it was really morning, and exactly that moment Uchiha gripped her shirt firmly. Hinata gasped realizing her mistake tad too late, but he was entrenched already and, twisting his arm, he tore her up from the ground and flung her over himself as if she was as light as a feather.

Hinata had had way too many training sessions with Neji to give up just like that now. Her pride flared. That nanosecond when she was falling down, her scorn flared. Emotions surfaced. And once they submerged again, she could think logically and assess her opponent properly. When Hinata landed on her feet firmly she decided not to use byakugan.

Sasuke wasn't using any ninjutsu and he trusted only simple moves of taijutsu. She could never rival him in physical strength, but it was her garden, and she was agile. And she could see.

Perhaps she only saw things, but Hinata could swear that the moment she attacked, she saw Sasuke smile wryly. Even if he did smile, that smirk disappeared the second her palm hit his chest and he bounced back coughing.

"Hyuuga…" he gave a low growl. "What's this? Resistance?"

Hinata frowned. The last few days had been too burdensome to welcome his jokes at ease.

"You're in my territory. You're my guest," she said calmly. "I've just woken up. My stomach is churning…"

"Just don't puke…"

"It's not funny!" Hinata exclaimed unexpectedly and she cupped her mouth with her hand suddenly, surprised at her own outburst.

"Oh…" now Sasuke really smirked. "Then what is funny?"

Hinata frowned and lunged forwards. She couldn't believe it, but she was the one attacking. Uchiha had to defend himself. It was hard. Hinata thought that, if a blind Uchiha was making his opponent sweat like mad, then a totally healthy Uchiha must've been a real monster. She tried to imagine herself stuck in Uchiha's genjutsu and missed a blow to her shoulder.

"Stop daydreaming," Sasuke suggested.

"Shut. Up." Hinata pushed his hand away and, bobbing suddenly, she struck her foot over his ankles.

Sasuke flopped down on his back into the flower bed, but at the last second he grabbed Hinata's hand and it all ended in her knocking her jaw hard into his chest. She thought that somebody hit a drum in her brain, when her teeth clattered formidably. Hyuuga closed her eyes tight, checking with her tongue (which she, luckily, hadn't bitten) if all of her teeth were still intact. Uchiha closed his eyes tight, rubbing the bonked head of his. It had the honours of checking the density of the garden ground. And then he felt it…

Well, he realized he fell into the flower bed with Hyuuga the moment he grabbed her hand. Though to be more exact – with Hyuuga on top of him. At first he wasn't disturbed by such a thought, but now…

"Ow…" Hinata said, raising her head and rubbing the swollen chin, not paying attention that she was lying on top of Uchiha – hunger was far too prominent right now, and other matters just disappeared from her perception.

"I'll definitely get a bruise from this," Sasuke declared, keeping in mind his breastbone.

"Then you shouldn't have grabbed me," Hinata ground her hands into the soil at the both sides of Uchiha, and lifted herself up. She tried to sort of entrench her feet into the ground, as if she were to do push-ups, and as a result; she touched everything in her way.

Sasuke opened his eyes in a flash and took a deep breath.

"Don't move," he hissed through his clenched teeth.

"What?" Hinata blinked and looked down at him.

"DON'T. MOVE." he repeated emphasizing every syllable.

Hinata was staring at his pale face totally clueless, watching his skin gather some sort of a hue for the first time. His sudden mood swing was something unbelievable. They were definitely in no danger in this garden. They were completely alone. Then why was he….

The shifting colour of his face finally guided her towards the right direction and she transferred her focus from environment onto what was right beneath her. Her fingers dug into the soil like cat claws. A whole gallon of blood shot into her head and she swallowed hard.

"Is… is it really?" she stuttered.

"Did you sleep through your biology lessons, Hyuuga?" Uchiha said with a mock.

That was enough to make Hinata jump off him as if he were burning. Sasuke sat up slowly and weighed down his head. Hinata's stomach growled.

They both were hungry. But probably not for the same thing.

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To be continued…

(I will also post an author's comment in regards with your comments. *.* I love you guys, I haven't expected such attention… =3)


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note (looks like not the one and only xD):**

**First of,** thank you so much for your support *teary eyes* I did not expect to receive so many reviews in such a short time. Well, I wanted to get attention, but I didn't expect it :) And since with this chapter we will have reached the middle of the story, I decided to emerge and prove that this is not being updated by a robot, lol. Sorry, I can't mention all of you in this reply, but I'll just point out some things which were left in my brain while reading your comments.

**Fast updating**. Well, you know, translating isn't prone to writer's blocks =D. Just as I've said, the whole story is already written and all I've got to do is translate it into English. I wish you were able to read it in the original version (just because original is, you know, original), but alas, the number of people in this world who speak Lithuanian is shamefully low… The updates MIGHT get dragged starting February 5th (when my spring semester at university starts), but I don't think studies would cause any troubles with writing. It never had, to be honest xD

**One-sided NejiHina. **I don't know. Maybe. But most probably not. Though I think that in this fic they have a really close relationship and if they weren't cousins I might consider putting them together, but now it's just against my principles. For one, I have a really close relationship with my cousin too, and just to think about him the other way, would be… eww. Secondly, I come from a culture in which such relationships between family (even extended family) members are greatly frowned upon. So it's in my blood to stay away from such things. Also, I frequently come across the explanations of NejiHina fans (I read one NejiHina doujinshi once, was pretty nice), that relationships between cousins are viewed totally different in Asia (or in Japan). Well, I'm not too sure about Japan, because I never asked, lol, but when I lived in Korea for a few months, I actually asked some Korean friends of mine about it (basically because of the very same NejiHina xD), and they were like: "Eww, gross, no, what the hell's wrong wit u?! *Akira shock*" So yeah…

Well, anyways, what I'm trying to say is: I'm NOT AGAINST NejiHina as a Naruto coupling, and I have nothing against NejiHina shippers. I mean, everyone's entitled to his or her own opinion. It's just that I would never ship them or write about them myself (even though in this fic they sometimes balance on the line, but that's just for some kinky-ness effect, I'm a Cancer, lol, we're weird xD). So I guess it's just a "Live and let live" situation, hm? :)

**In-character vs. Unbelievable. **I just write about them how I imagine them to be really. Usually in such fiction like Naruto there are really good guys and really bad guys, with some quality really emphasized, totally forgetting the other features of a person. Yes well, Hinata is push-over, Sasuke is an a$$, and Neji is a brick-wall, but somehow I can't believe these are their only colours. They all are people (well, at least let's pretend them to be xD), and they have other features as well. I mean, basically all of us are grey with some meek streaks of blue, red or green here and there. So yeah, that's why sometimes they can seem unbelievable. Though I'm really grateful to those, who say that all of the Naruto-people here are totally in character. Thanks so much. I take it as a very big compliment^^ Also, in this fic they are all in their 20's. And that's the period of your life when the world stops being black and white only.

**Title.** To be honest. I don't know how to name this story. "SasuHina" just… basically explains the core of the story and what to expect. And I don't want to slap on some greasy title like "You are my light" or "Under your wing"… Anyways, back in the forum where I first posted the story, I renamed it in the middle of the writing process and it became: "**明日は來るから****"** – _Asu wa kuru kara_ – Because tomorrow comes. (Yeah, I'm very good at stealing song titles x)) I'm still not completely satisfied with it though, so it's for you to decide if I should slap kanji and hiragana on the title, instead of SasuHina.

**Tens****es. **A few years ago I would have said that I'm not a native speaker and tense system in my language is completely different. Now I know that my language has exactly the same amount of tenses as English (only they're sorta "hidden" lol) and also, I've been told by an American that my English is "ridiculous, because you sound like an intelligent native speaker". So I kind of… have no more excuses xD. But some things I can explain. If there's a weird transition between past/present/future, then it's intentional. I know that English requires sequence of tenses, but sometimes it just doesn't sound right… also, as a person who has had countless classes on literature and linguistics, I can say that sometimes author CAN bend the grammar in order to achieve a particular impression in one's writing. ALTHOUGH, if it's a mix up between Past Simple/Past Perfect or Past Continuous/Past Perfect Continuous, then yeah. My bad xD

(and I edited the typos)

**Hormones.** Well, Sasuke is a human-being too! Despite him looking like a vampire and all, with these flashy eyes of his. And I think that SasuHina couldn't work properly without hormones, to be honest. From my point of view, no relationship could. But that's just my opinion^^;;

*coughs* I hope I didn't bore you much. Let's get back to the story now, shall we? :)

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**--11--**

Everything was submerged into a transparent fog. She breathed it in and it made her spin like mad, even though deep inside she realized that it was only her brain spinning, affected by a particular combination of chemicals. She couldn't move being totally dizzy, but at the same time she knew she was being thrown from one corner to the other.

Something squeezed her brain and she gasped, because the impulse reached every single cell of her body. Another heat wave and blood began pounding in her temples. Smudgy image flashed in front of her eyes, but she was sure she saw a pale naked shoulder.

It felt as if a bender squeezed her temples and she ran out of air. Whenever she tried to breathe in, her senses were assaulted by the same clean and strong scent, which intoxicated her more than the lack of the oxygen.

She reached out her hand, trying to get a hold of something, trying to catch anything. She needed a support; she needed something strong in this mist. And she couldn't understand whether her hand pierced through the mist. She didn't know if she touched the shoulder. It was hard to concentrate, because the colourless world resembled a dying star, which shrank, shrank and shrank into a small grain, and the tension was so high she thought her tendons would rip apart any minute. And when there was no going back, when she was smaller than a nucleus… she exploded into a billion pieces of sun dust…

Hinata jumped up in her bed, reaching out her hands, as if trying to catch a fleeting vision. She was taking deep breaths. She broke into a sweat. Her nightdress stuck to her back. At first she couldn't understand where she was, and she blinked rapidly.

Light wooden walls, a few plants in the pots, a closet behind the sliding door; rays of the winter sun, penetrating through the window; bed with white blanket. She put her hand to her chest, to calm her violently pounding heart. It was her room. Another day. She's home. It was only a…

She looked up and her attention was caught by a wall calendar next to the mirror. The third week of the first month of the year was highlighted in a red pencil. There were five days left to it. Hinata grumbled silently and weighed down her head, burying her face into her palms. It was beginning. And the worst thing was – those five days also included the Sunday she was supposed to visit Uchiha…

Actually, there was no pact written about her visits being obligatory. There was no treaty, but most probably it was like a very convenient habit, which was hard to break. No matter what would happen.

Hinata flopped onto her pillow again and made her brain work, thinking over everything that happened since the New Year. She got wasted. She pulled Uchiha Sasuke from the hospital and eventually her flower beds suffered for that. And then that…

--

"I guess I'll just take you back to the hospital," she had said back then, when her face went back from purple to slightly pink.

"Fine," Uchiha agreed, finally relaxed and composed.

--

And that was it. They got themselves together in silence and she took him back to Konoha, back to the hospital, making people whisper in the streets and in the hospital corridors. But when they finally reached his ward she was hungry to the point that she thought of nothing else, but a big and hot bowl of ramen.

She gave a sigh of relief, when the hospital personnel asked for no explanation whatsoever. Sakura was also nowhere to be seen, so she decided to head home immediately and this time sleep off as much as she wanted. But the problem was that right before leaving she didn't forget to say: "I'll come back next Sunday."

The hell told me to say that, Hinata hid behind the blanket, shutting her eyes tightly. It had been a few days already, since that weird mid-winter tour, but she still couldn't get a peaceful sleep. She peeped through a small gap in her blanket at the calendar on the wall. And she wasn't going to get a peaceful slumber anytime soon. This definitely wasn't going well. Why Sunday had to be in the midst of those few anxious days?

Hinata wanted to scream. But that didn't really match her image. So she just bit her blanket and, paying no attention to her drool soaking into the cloth, and the taste of clothes softener in her mouth, she gave a silent squeal.

Someone knocked on her door silently and Hinata spat the blanket out.

"Come in," she said, trying to smooth the damp and crumpled patch of her blanket.

The door was easily slid aside and Neji walked in. Tall and straight, but weariness was written all over his face. Hinata realized that he most probably had just returned from his mission in Suna.

"Good morning," he said, closing the door and eyeing her closely.

"Good morning," Hinata pulled the blanket up to her chin, trying to hide her thoughts more than her body.

Neji cocked an eyebrow and if he could have, he would have activated a mind-reading byakugan, but (alas) the Hyuugas didn't have that skill yet. Therefore he looked back over his shoulder as if suspecting something. His misty eyes caught the calendar and peered at the third week of the month. Then he turned back to Hinata and, instead of coming closer, he pulled a few steps back.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to jump on you for sure," Hinata let go of the blanket embarrassed and looked away.

"You can never know," Neji shrugged and frowned, as cramps clamped his tired muscles. "They say still waters run deep."

Hinata slowly clambered out of her bed alarmed and minced towards her cousin.

"Are you alright?" she asked looking straight into his eyes.

"Just a little bit tired, but I'm fine," he replied in exactly the same emotionless manner.

"Where does it hurt?"

"Nape."

"Take off your clothes."

Neji took off his sandy sweater and white shirt offhandedly. Hinata swallowed painfully, standing in front of his broad and naked back. Periodic chemical reactions were affecting her brain already, but Hinata just shook her head and activated byakugan, reaching out her hands into her cousin, ready to subdue the pain in his muscles.

He was sitting calmly and quietly for a few minutes, while she played with the chakra channels and his skin. He felt his body relax leisurely, but his mind was still rather tensed.

"Hina…" he uttered eventually.

"M?" was her reply. She was too focused on the black and white image of chakra channels in front of her.

"Who was in the garden?"

Her legs went numb, but her hands kept on working without fail. That was to be expected. One can't hide anything from Neji. Even though it had been a few days already and she had trimmed the garden as much as she could, some traces could not be hidden. Such as – the far and wide ploughed pansy bed.

"Uchiha Sasuke," she answered sighing.

Neji turned to look at her, disrupting the massage session. His long hair fell on his back and Hinata noticed that his dark mane was longer than hers.

"Oh."

"What?"

"Interesting."

"Interesting?" Hinata frowned, totally clueless.

"Uchiha is of unstable mind, but he's a worthy opponent," Neji explained his logics.

"So you're not going to lock me under nine locks and tell me to stay home?" Hinata blinked unable to believe this.

"Do whatever you please," he stood up and stretched himself, blocking the light coming from the window. "Just don't do anything which would make me kill him afterwards."

A cold shudder ran down Hinata's back.

"I just want to help him," she explained.

"And how's it going?" Neji asked, putting on his shirt.

"Not too good," Hinata admitted, sitting down on the chair her cousin had just been using. "Physically his eyes are completely fine."

"It's not the eyes, it's the blood limit," he said, grabbing the sandy-coloured sweater.

"Excuse me?"

"Sharingan. It's an eye technique. But based on the blood limit," Neji shrugged and sat down on Hinata's bed. "Those red eyes are like a burnt-out light-bulb. Just like the chakra gates that Lee opens…

"Are you trying to say…" Hinata was putting pieces of puzzle together. "That making the Uchihas blind is a nature's way of insuring against limitless power?"

"Just guessing. But an Uchiha armed with a limitless sharingan would probably be as dangerous as a rinnegan user. On the other hand, the old men would say that a byakugan branch could never surpass the original source, so nature created a natural stopping device."

"But… if blindness is a natural outcome of a too intensive sharingan use, then how is it supposed to be cured?" Hinata felt her empty stomach become heavier than a big heap of lead. "It's practically the same as trying to stop the aging process."

"There has to be some way out," Neji stood up and looked down at her. "Though it's obvious that sharigan's a curse, so just be glad you're a Hyuuga."

"Yes, I'm bouncing with joy," she said with such level of sarcasm in her voice, that Neji felt ill at ease. She glanced at the calendar again and pursed her lips, thinking what she should do in order to behave normally once she was in his ward again. For the next few days she would have to work as hard as possible. Physically if possible.

"So that's why you're going to the hospital every weekend," Neji noted, guessing the trail of her thoughts more or less correctly.

"M," she nodded. Neji's opinion about sharingan should guide her to the right direction. Hinata was thinking about the shelves in the Hyuuga library she should check before going to the hospital. "This weekend will be weird," she said.

"Just don't rape him."

"Not funny."

"I know. That's why I'm telling."

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To be continued…


	12. Chapter 12

**--12--**

Pen was clattering periodically against the desktop, but the knocks were smothered by sheets of paper, therefore it didn't bother the people sitting nearby. She didn't actually realize she was playing with her pen. Her thoughts were elsewhere.

She had worked off her feet yesterday, slaving in the day-care centre. She came back home with a terrible headache and barely dragging her feet. After soaking in a tub for like an hour or so, she somehow managed to clamber into her bed and she fell asleep at once, hoping in a deep corner of her mind, that the sleep would be deep, empty and dreamless. Yeah right. Her conscious played another trick on her in the early hours, and now she was sitting among respectable people, but she could clearly see her dream in her head.

The same scent had flooded over her. Her temples had been squeezed with the bender again, yet this time she'd seen not one naked shoulder. She'd seen a lot more. She didn't even dare to word the image that she saw in her head. She was afraid to think about it. She just let visuals flash in her mind, leaving her nothing but unbalanced. She was close to taking sedatives really.

"Hinata-san."

"M?" she looked up suddenly, waking up from a daydream. She was sitting behind a round table in a huge room, lit with a bright chandelier. Apart from Sakura and Naruto there were also a few proficient medics of Konoha and a representative of ANBU faction with a rabbit mask on his face.

"Do you agree?" the ANBU warrior repeated in a sweet voice. Hinata blinked.

"Excuse me?" she frowned, totally clueless of what he was talking about.

"ANBU want to use Sasuke's abilities in their oncoming mission," Naruto explained with bitterness in his voice. "I've told Hokage already that he's not cured yet, but the secret corps still stand their ground…"

"But he's blind," Hinata said silently.

"I can unblock the sight channel," Sakura said, demonstrably disappointed. "I don't think that a standard sharingan would damage his sight further, but if he were to use mangekyo, there'd be only a step left to the ultimate blindness…"

"And ANBU clearly want only mangekyo," Naruto blurted out.

"You're too hasty with your conclusions, Uzumaki…"

"What do you mean; I'm hasty with my conclusions!" Naruto flared up, despite the elder people present. His blue eyes turned purple, the marks on his cheeks deepened. "You think I don't know how ninja village functions? Exhaust a person till his last breath, then throw him out and look for another fool!"

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata bit her lip, moved by his expression. Mad Naruto would momentarily assume some features of Kyuubi, but these days he no longer scared the villagers, because, with a little help from Hachibi jinchuuriki, he learned to cooperate with that fox inside of him. They even could communicate with each other. Naruto would sometimes get carried away and start reciting his thoughts aloud, making people who didn't know him think he was not in a right state of mind.

"He's a pupil of Konoha Ninja Academy," said a respectable white-haired man in a light cloak. "Everybody who chooses a path of a ninja…"

"He is my friend," Naruto clenched his shaky fists, speaking in a low, formidable voice. "It's my duty to pull hit outta this hole. I'm not supposed to push him further into this."

"Sharingan…" Hinata began, twiddling the pen with her fingers. "Sharingan has its limits," everybody focused on her and she blushed immediately, but made herself speak further. "The way I understand it, blindness is a natural result of a too intensive mangekyo usage."

"That means we have to use it until it's too late…"

WHAM!

Hinata flinched as Sakura hit her fist onto the desktop.

"Sasuke hasn't trained for a few months," she growled. "Stop talking nonsense."

But he's still quite agile, Hinata thought, remembering that "adventure" in the garden. Her cheeks heated up again.

"I… I think that in this case," she uttered again with a slight stutter. "We have to settle our priorities – whether it's the sharingan or the eyes."

"What are you trying to say, Hyuuga-san?" asked a woman in horn-rimmed glasses, sitting close to the ANBU member. Hinata swallowed. A few hours spent in the Hyuuga library had to finally pay off.

"It's obvious that if it wasn't for the sharingan, his eyes would be perfectly fine," she said.

"Are you suggesting getting rid of the sharingan?"

"We can't afford this," the ANBU member shook his head. "Just as Kyuubi, sharingan is one of the best weapons of Konoha."

"You do realize I'm right here, don't you?" Naruto grumbled, glancing at the man hiding behind the mask. "And Kitsune-chan hears everything."

_Call me Kitsune-chan one more time, and Imma burn you from inside, NARU-CHAN_, low voice of Kyuubi rang in Naruto's head.

_I dare you_, Naruto answered in his mind and focused on the conversation being developed.

"Sasuke would be a weapon dangerous enough even without sharingan," Sakura said. "What do you have in mind, Hinata?" she turned to the dark-haired Hyuuga.

"Well, I still don't know how to do it," Hinata suddenly felt relieved she was finally able to let out everything that had been going through her mind for the past few days. The bag full of tomatoes, set near her chair, shifted right and leaned onto her leg, giving her another reason to talk. "In theory it would require a complete seal on the blood limit in order to preserve the eyesight."

"But then…" Sakura carefully let Hinata's words sink through her sieve of a mind. "Then a part of the Uchiha hereditary information would change as well. He wouldn't be able to pass sharingan on to his offspring."

"But he would still have this sight…" Hinata contradicted silently.

"Sasuke's always wanted to revive his clan…" Naruto added.

Hinata leaned back slightly irritated. Was there any way to explain them that sometimes it was just virtually impossible to kill two birds with one stone? On the other hand, after a double-take she was assaulted by another thought. The word "revive" was positive and really nice, but once it was put together with Sasuke, it turned out to be rather indecent. She almost snapped her pen in half.

"I don't think that by reviving a clan Sasuke-san meant preserving the sharingan," she said suddenly and turned to Naruto. "A clan, first of all, is a family."

Naruto eyed with an intense and even longing look, and then he looked down at the tabletop, clasping his hands together.

_Hyuuga hit the bull's-eye, eh? Naru-chan…_ Kyuugi giggled darkly.

_One more word and you're gonna experience the toad village diet again…_ threatened Naruto.

"Well, the mission is scheduled to initiate in a fortnight," the ANBU representative declared. "And if you have no way how to isolate that blood limit by then, he's ours."

"In such case we're going to appeal to Hokage," Sakura assured.

"Good luck," his face was covered by the mask, but Hinata could swear he gave an evil smirk behind it. She had an urge to activate her byakugan and see his real face, but the warrior made a quick jutsu seal and evaporated with a smoke.

--

"Do you really believe that it's possible to save his sight by sealing the blood limit?" Sakura asked when there were only her, Hinata and Naruto left in the room. Once the ANBU member had gone, the others left soon enough too, as there was nothing to be discussed left.

"In order to cure an illness, one has to remove its cause," Hinata bent down and picked up the bag full of vegetables from the ground. "And a cause for his illness is sharingan."

"Sasuke'll get mad when he finds out," Naruto sighed.

"There's no need to be hasty," Sakura warned him, gathering the papers left on the round table. "We still don't know if such method would be effective. We don't know how to do it."

"But you should at least forewarn him of such possibility," Naruto lumped a bag on his shoulders and straightened the folds of his long black coat. It was unbuckled, as if he absolutely didn't care about the winter. The coat was lined with a bright orange fur from the inside.

"I can tell him," Hinata leaned the bag onto her hip, pushing the chair to the table.

Naruto and Sakura met each other's eye. Hinata hunched thinking a storm was coming, but they kept on doing whatever they were into a few seconds ago. Sakura pushed all the papers into a huge folder and Naruto strung his black leather boots with mighty treads.

"I've heard you're visiting him every week," Sakura said, walking towards the bookshelf of the hospital head – after all it was his office they'd used for the meeting today.

"M," Hinata nodded, placing yet another notebook on the desk, full of her handwritten lines on blood limits. "It's just that… a patient who doesn't want to get better… he cannot be left alone."

"And last Sunday you pulled him outside," Sakura watched Hyuuga's expression carefully.

"Then I was in a bad state," Hinata looked down embarrassed. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

"Huh?" she looked up surprised at Naruto, who was standing right in front of her.

"He has nobody else apart from Sakura and me," Uzumaki put his hand on her shoulder and looked at her with those warm blue eyes of his. "Sasuke needs friends and you… as I can see," he smirked, glancing at red tomatoes in the bag. "Know him quite well already."

Hinata's ears burned up.

"Th-there's no need to thank me, Na-Naruto-kun…"

"I'll be waiting for you in my office, Naruto," Sakura's voice sliced through her embarrassment. "Hinata-chan," she gave a genial smile. "Sasuke and his eyes… yoroshiku onegaishimasu," she bowed and left the office with a yellow folder under her arm.

Hinata thought puzzled, why on earth all of a sudden she had become the main figure in this "Let's save Sasuke's eyesight" game. Just a few weeks ago she basically had no idea of Uchiha whatsoever and now he lingered in her head and her subconscious most of the time, bringing her back to the hospital every weekend. It was getting rather spooky.

"Hinata-chan," Naruto's voice interrupted her daydream and she blinked, focusing on him completely.

"M?"

"This…" he took off his bag and pulled out a pretty big notebook with hard black cover from it. "Hokage transferred me to work in the tower a long time ago, but I got settled next to her office only recently… so I've finished cleaning up my mess today… heh heh…" he gave and embarrassed chuckle and Hinata cocked an eyebrow, thinking where he was getting to.

"And?" she asked.

"Ah, yeah… so there…" he pulled himself together, putting the bag onto the table and gripping the notebook with both hands. He became serious. "When you said that Sasuke treasures family more than sharingan… I thought, you should read this," he offered the notebook to Hinata.

"What's this?"

"My notes," Naruto shrugged. "One of the few notebooks that I was going to bring back home, but…" realizing he was straying off the topic again, he pushed his hands into his coat pockets. "When Sasuke returned to Konoha and when eventually we got rid of Madara… Tsunade-baba ordered me to interrogate Sasuke about Itachi and write a report about it. He was a Konoha ninja after all, and everything had to be documented."

"Itachi?"

"Sasuke's older brother. Uchiha Itachi," Naruto explained.

"Yes, I know, I…"

"This is a rough draft of my report," Naruto cut her off. "I omitted lots of stuff in the final version, because I didn't expect Sasuke to be so open about it," he sighed. "Only Sasuke, Sakura and I know of whatever's written in this notebook. Even Tsunade-san had to make it only with my official report."

"Then why…"

"Because you'll understand," Naruto smiled. "And sorry about my ugly handwriting. Later," he winked and left the room.

Hinata glanced at the black notebook in her hands, feeling totally confused. Curiosity took over her, but at the same time she also felt embarrassed though she didn't know why. She felt unbalanced. Emotions were intermingling in her head like crazy, until her brain was left absolutely empty. It was empty but for a serious resolution to leave this room for one particular ward.

Well, she gripped the back of the notebook firmly, walking up the stairs, at least I'll have what to do while he gobbles those tomatoes.

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To be continued…


	13. Chapter 13

**--13--**

She walked in silently and without a single knock. She was sure she would find Uchiha lying in his bed with his eyes closed anyways. And perhaps he would be even sleeping.

It was dark in the room so she instinctively activated her byakugan. The room image turned negative and Hinata almost got a heart attack – there was a ghost standing by the window.

Closing the door and leaning onto the wall, she quickly switched on the light with her elbow. Blood-vessels protruding on her cheeks disappeared immediately and the white ghost became one particular Uchiha dressed in black. He was standing with his head lowered, listening to everything carefully.

"You came," he said leaving the window and heading towards a table.

Hinata blinked. That small round wooden table clearly hadn't been here before. A small piece of furniture with two chairs was set right next to the window, squeezed in between the closet and the windowsill. The narrow room was completely cluttered now, but Hinata didn't find this change to be suffocating.

It was a twofold feeling. If she hadn't been thinking too much, Hinata would have loved the attention Sasuke was showing (no matter how weird he was doing that), but the rational part of Hyuuga told her not to expect anything from him. He might show one signs, and then commit something absolutely different.

Hinata was still having dreams of that episode when he literally had stuck to her, trying to smell the tomatoes. Hyuuga shook her head and walked towards the table at the end of the ward. Stuffing all the suggestive thoughts into a dark corner of her maze of a brain, Hinata simply decided to act according to her plan, be altruistic and don't expect much, as though she were working with an infant who still had no gift of speech.

"Good evening," she greeted him, pulling back a chair. "Some renovation."

"Personnel made me," Sasuke explained, getting a hold of the other chair and sitting down onto it.

He would have rather killed himself than admitted that a few days ago during the usual inspection he had blurted out to Sakura: "I need a table". He could make as many excuses as he wished in his mind, trying to satisfy his pride, but he clearly realized, that the table appeared in order to even out the balance of forces.

Hinata's visits became so regular that he eventually (though not too willingly) got used to it. He didn't really care before whether he was in bed or not. He didn't care whether people considered him a patient or a maniac, but due to some incomprehensible reason he didn't want Hyuuga believe he was weak or powerless. And a sole fact that he kept on lying in bed, tucked in with his blanket while she sat on a chair… he didn't really see that, but Uchiha had a very good imagination and that picture in his brain kept on denting his dignity week after week. Therefore, he eventually clambered out of his bed and asked for a table.

Hinata sat down and eyed a totally indifferent Uchiha with suspicion. She put the paper bag with tomatoes on the tabletop. This time she was going to cut everything instead of letting him eat whichever way he pleased. If she were to clean a smudged Uchiha Sasuke again, this time she wouldn't be able to take it and she would lose it – she would start giggling like mad or would simply assault him, having rather indecent intentions. The latter option didn't sound too good.

The bag gave a loud crunch when she pulled out a knife and a cutting-board. Sasuke gave a wry smirk.

"Is it the vegetable I'm thinking of?" he asked reaching out his hand towards the source of the sound, but Hinata tapped his palm with the flat side of the knife.

"No touching," she ordered. "This time you'll have to wait until I'm done with cutting," she pulled out a big white porcelain plate from the bag and one tomato. The notebook that Naruto had given her was lying on her knees, so that it accidentally wouldn't be spattered with tomato juice.

Under normal circumstances Sasuke would have, to put it mildly, bitten off the head of the person interrupting him, but he had one shortcoming common to all mankind – he was inquisitive. He was interested in an aberrant behaviour of Hyuuga Hinata. After all, he used to spend his days in a complete boredom and darkness, and solitude (which was occasionally violated by one nurse or the other), so he eventually immersed himself in the game Hyuuga had started. He thought it wasn't dangerous and, after all, how could an activity, during which one would receive fresh tomatoes, be harmful anyways?

He locked his fingers together and put his hands on the table like a patient father, waiting for his one and only child to produce something incredible.

The sharp knife sliced through a tomato with ease and Hinata calmed down immediately, even though she had been rather edgy just a few minutes ago. Perhaps she was imagining she was cutting her enemy, but the first tomato was sliced into 6 pieces pretty fast and she took another one.

"It might be possible that we've found out the cause of your illness," she said, figuring she could tell him about her theory at least a little bit.

"M?"

"Sharingan."

Sasuke sniffed in contempt suddenly and Hinata almost cut her finger. She looked up stupefied only to see him smirking wryly.

"And it took you all a few months to figure out THAT?" he asked with a mock.

"You don't look surprised…"

"It's a simple sequence of cause and effect – if I didn't have sharingan, I wouldn't be blind," Sasuke said calmly.

"Then you do realize," the knife sliced through the third tomato. "That in order to save your eyesight, you have to get rid of the sharingan."

"If I were to walk with deactivated sharingan, I would go blind sooner," he contradicted her in cold blood, remembering the days when the light would disappear from his eyes in the middle of a day.

"I'm not talking about that," Hinata sighed, putting pieces of tomato into the plate. "Getting rid of means sealing the blood limit off completely."

Sasuke frowned.

"Uchiha without the sharingan? Even if it were possible, you're being ridiculous."

The knife ploughed into the cutting board and tomato juice squirted onto Hinata's cheek.

"What are you going to do with the sharingan when you're blind?" she asked silently. "I don't know maybe there's no difference. Blind with the sharingan or sighted without it. It's for you to decide… but what's the use of a weapon if you can't use it?"

"What the use of byakugan if you're not using it?"

Hinata pursed her lips as he treaded on home truth. She wanted to emphasize that Hyuugas are born with byakugan while Uchihas gain it later, when they are faced with lethal danger or some other complicated situation, but that would have led to further discussions and she didn't want to embark on that. It wasn't her choice to be a Hyuuga. She was just born there. And who says she's not using byakugan.

"I do use it," she said. "Sometimes," she added. "In the dark."

"Hentai," the corners of Uchiha's lips curled up and Hinata glanced at him embarrassed, afraid he might really see everything, even see right through her. She was afraid he could read her mind, and this blindness stuff was only a good acting show. But she made herself finish cutting the tomatoes; she set the remaining pieces onto the plate and pushed it towards Sasuke.

"Enjoy," she said.

She stood up, leaving Naruto's notebook on the chair, when Sasuke reached out his hand to the plate full of vegetables. Hinata went over to the bathroom and put the cutting board and the knife under the running water. She watched the endless current for a while, listening to the flow of water, and then she looked up slowly and met her reflection in the mirror.

The skin was slightly pale, without any distinctive tint. A little bit more and it would have assumed the same colour as the misty Hyuuga eyes. The hair was black to the point it looked dark blue or dark violet, depending on the lighting. She puffed uneven bangs up and reached out for the toilet paper, recalling she had to wipe the tomato juice off her cheek.

Throwing a damp white sheet into a bin, she ripped off ten pieces of toilet paper at the least, because she hadn't brought paper towels from home and Uchiha would still be in need of tissues despite the fact that this time she shredded all the tomatoes in pieces.

Holding the cutting board and the knife in one hand, and pieces of toilet paper in the other, she came back into the ward only to find that Uchiha had eaten half of the tomatoes already. She didn't understand whether he liked the vegetable that much or he was doing that only to irritate her.

She halted and took a closer look at his profile. He had a mouthful of tomatoes but somehow still managed to avoid bloated cheeks while eating. His raven-black hair was still standing up at the back of his head like duck tail, and because of the black clothes, which emphasised his pale skin, he looked like a wax doll. She didn't even know for sure the name of that piece of outer garment he was wearing, but she couldn't take her eyes off the lengthways trimmed collar, which highlighted his broad shoulders.

And right when she was about to marvel at him, the wonderful Uchiha stroked his nose and cheek with his wet hand, smearing up like a five-year-old in a sandbox, trying to wipe off his own booger. Hinata rolled her eyes.

"If your nose itches, you just have to tell me. I would've given you a tissue," she said walking towards him.

"No need," Sasuke grumbled, grabbing the next-to-last piece of tomato.

"What do you mean, no need," she sighed, stopping right in front of him. "Do you have any idea how you look like?"

"It doesn't matter how I look like, it's how I feel what matters," Uchiha sputtered, having a mouthful of tomatoes.

"This is not going to work," Hinata declared and kneeled next to him, clenching one piece of toilet paper. "Don't move," she ordered.

Sasuke's arm froze mid-air with a piece of tomato in-hand, when Hinata gripped his chin with her fingers and began wiping his wet cheek. His skin was soft and well looked-after, and Hinata suddenly found herself thinking what his secret was – his beard just didn't grow or was he really that good at shaving? She snickered silently, remembering what Ino used to say back in the academy days: "It's better to give birth once than scrape your face with razor for the rest of your life."

Uchiha released a weird and smothered sigh, which probably was supposed to indicate his boredom or disapproval with what she was doing, but Hinata wanted to finish her job properly and she moved closer to him, so she could reach that dirty patch of skin next to his left ear.

She blinked when something familiar tickled her senses, but she couldn't exactly tell where and when she had felt the very same thing before. Hinata glanced at Sasuke with her brows knotted in a frown and, seeing that he was totally clueless of her discovery, she moved even closer. And then it hit her. Or, pulled her more likely.

And it pulled her so hard, that Hinata, totally forgetting her common sense, buried her nose into his neck curve and took such a deep breath, that one would've thought she'd spent at least a minute underwater and now she'd just surfaced, labouring for breath. Her brain was covered by the familiar fog and she recognized the scent which had been haunting her whole week. Her memory turned on and she remembered the sweater which had been her pillow. That sweater had smelled the very same way, but now the scent was even stronger. Siren went off somewhere in a deep corner of her brain, when she realized that the source of this hallucinogenic substance was Uchiha Sasuke, but the problem was, she wasn't able to pull back.

Uchiha's hand went into convulsions and clenched into a fist, crushing the tomato to the fullest, when the tip of Hinata's nose touched his neck.

"Hyuuga, what are you doing?" he asked swallowing slowly.

"I'll find a way to seal the blood limit," she breathed out so close to his left ear, that he got goosebumps all over.

"You're being ridiculous," he was glad he could repress the shiver. "What are you doing?" she took another deep breath and he could disregard it no longer. "Hyuuga, wake up," he threw the squashed piece of tomato onto the table and, taking a hold of her chin with his left hand, he pushed her away.

"You…" Hinata blinked, feeling Uchiha's heartbeat at his fingertips. "You," she could feel the very same finger tips smearing her skin with tomato juice. "You smudged me."

Now, Sasuke thought, this should wake her up. Maybe she'll snap out of it.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he gave a wry smirk and raised his chin so that it would seem as if he was looking straight at her. "I'll wipe it off. What would you prefer? Tissue or my tongue?"

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To be continued…


	14. Chapter 14

**WARNING:** This chapter contains a major manga spoiler concerning Uchiha Itachi. If you haven't read up to the point of Sasuke/Itachi fight in the manga and further... well, you've been warned.

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**--14--**

Hinata blinked when his words rebounded from her wall of a brain and echoed down the spacious convolution corridors. The sound turned into an image and she sprang back from him immediately, blushing more densely than the tomato he had just crushed.

She wiped off her cheeks feverishly with her blouse sleeve and got down to cleaning the messy table.

"I'm sorry," she breathed. "I've lost self-control a little bit," she wiped the wet tabletop with toilet paper, taking hold of the tomato remains with her left hand. "I've been having a pretty hard time recently."

"What kind?" Sasuke scoffed. "Rut?"

Hinata almost flopped down on the floor. She would get thoughts like that from time to time, but to go as far as expressing it out loud…

"I shall not comment on that one," she said, throwing the remains of tomato into the bin.

Sasuke couldn't help it. He grinned, revealing only the upper grid of his teeth, but Hinata stopped dead in her tracks, seeing him smile. Basically she should've felt offended at least a little bit, as he was obviously amused by her lamely constructed answer, and it only helped her run away from the truth, but it was the first time she saw Uchiha smile. It was a real, genuine smile, which gave his usually cold and scornful face some cosiness. He even looked cute…

Hinata shook her head. Uchiha + cute = x__x

She put the plate (it was still dripping wet with tomato juice and the paper bag got soaked through, but she didn't care about that now), the knife and the cutting board into her bag, put on her jacket, grabbed Naruto's notebook from the chair and turned to leave, afraid she might commit something more interesting if she stayed.

"You're leaving?" Sasuke asked still smiling, leaning his elbow onto the table. If his eyes had been alive, they would've had mischievous sparks in them right now.

Hinata gripped the notebook firmly, feeling the blouse wrists, which were drenched with tomato juice, stuck to her skin.

"I'll be back," she said opening the door and leaving the ward in haste.

Finding herself in the corridor, Hinata leaned against the wall and cupped her mouth with her hand, totally horrified with herself. The good thing was that she finally found out where that dream scent had come from. The bad thing was… it was affecting her way too much.

--

The smile disappeared from Sasuke's face immediately. As if it was gone with the wind. He groped the table with his left hand and, feeling a dry piece of toilet paper, he leaned forwards with intention to wipe off his wet fingers. He stroked his thumb over his other fingers remembering the way they were touching Hinata's skin. A wish inflamed inside of him and Sasuke frowned, because he didn't like it, not by a long shot. He wanted to see her.

***

She began reading while she was still walking down the stairs in the hospital. She did that in order to shoo away certain thoughts. She thought that concentrating onto a totally different topic would help. By the time she was at the exit she could no longer take her eyes off the notebook and she was walking down the brightly lit streets, so she would be able to discern Naruto's cranky handwriting. The point was that the most interesting things were hiding in the margins and above the main lines. They were Naruto's personal jottings written down in an ink of a different colour.

Ever since she was little she knew this story by hearsay, she knew as much as she was allowed to know. And now the story was unfolding in front of her in a full-fledged Technicolor. The person, with whom she had no emotional attachments whatsoever just a few weeks ago; the person, who was about to arouse a wild beast in her these days… he was beginning to look more like… a human being. As if she had finally noticed the reasons behind this big opaque shield. Yet regrettably, the reasons which made him look more like a human were totally different from his kind smile.

She finished reading when there were only a few blocks left to the Hyuuga mansion. She closed the notebook the moment she noticed tears dropping on the inky lines. Hinata blinked rapidly, trying to suppress the oncoming flood, but the tears were falling like rain and she changed her mind. She would never go home like this. She made up her mind in a flash, turned around and headed towards a completely different district, with only one person in mind.

She was running as fast as she could. The tears on her cheeks gradually encrusted with an icy skin and if it had been a little bit colder, the salty waterworks would have turned into ice immediately.

The bag was thrown away near the grocery store. She was flying down the cold streets of Konoha, but Hinata didn't feel her run; she didn't register the efforts she put into this action, because erratic lines from Naruto's notebook were flashing through her mind. They were painting her world in new sharp colours and their combination wasn't too positive. Official report was mixing with Naruto's comments. The longer she ran, the longer those comments became.

--

**Uchiha Itachi**

**Birth date: **06 09

**Highest rank: **ANBU

**Class: **S

**Double agent**

_Sometimes I think I've been so wrong in telling Itachi I'm a better brother to Sasuke than he'd ever been…_

Pacifist. Entered ANBU under the influence of Uchiha Fugaku. Became an ANBU captain at the age of 13. Uchiha spy. Was supposed to help prepare a mutiny against Konoha, but crossed over to Konoha's side and became a double agent. Eliminated the whole Uchiha clan under the orders of Konoha, leaving alive only his younger brother, Uchiha Sasuke.

_He loved his brother more than Konoha, more than his village. He must've been rather formidable; cuz the heads of Konoha didn't finish Sasuke off themselves after he'd left. He also must've hated war a lot, if he could sacrifice his whole clan for the sake of peace._

_Sometimes I think that he was planning to be killed by Sasuke even then…_

Akatsuki member. In the last years of his life smitten by a complicated illness. Eventually killed by Uchiha Sasuke.

_Most probably Itachi was the mightiest shinobi of all times. But everything was hidden cuz of one simple reason – Sasuke. I'm frequently being reminded these days that my father sacrificed his life for our village, but the way Itachi ruined his life for the sake of his younger brother… it's just unreal._

_The Uchihas were traitors. Basically cuz of Madara's provocations. Sasuke grew up believing his clan was great and honourable. He's been driven forwards for years by the thought of defeating Itachi. Sasuke totally lost it when Madara revealed him part of the truth after Itachi's death._

_I'm not blaming him. Itachi had an impact on my life as well. Kyuubi isn't the only thing people are afraid of these days…_

--

It was really bright in the room. The warmth wafted upwards from the heated floor, and he was walking satisfied in his apartment barefoot, making the flaps of his robe flutter. He was pretty close to singing something stupid. Like Oh!Enka.

Sometimes the people coming over to his place would say that he was supposed to economize on the heating, but warmth was necessary in winter. When it was so cold outside that his bones hurt, there was nothing better than the hot floor once you were back home.

He was simply standing on the floor, letting his treads absorb the warmth and wriggling his toes, when he heard a quick and nervy knock on the door. Naruto blinked and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was a little bit slanted on the right. Who was there at this time of hour?

Uzumaki tiptoed towards the door and opened it in a broad swing, totally ignoring the fact that he let in a big gust of winter air as well. A shiver ran down his spine – after all, he was wearing nothing but his underwear and his robe. But his got a bigger shudder because of the image right in front of him.

Hinata-chan stood on his doorstep. Her cheeks were doughy; her eyes were bloodshot because of tears. Her long black hair was dishevelled and some stray strands were flapping at all directions possible because of the wind in the corridor. She sniffed taking deep breaths, clenching the dark notebook to her chest.

Naruto gasped.

"Hinata-chan…" he pursed his lips. "Just don't cry…"

But she couldn't take it anymore, choking on the wail she'd been repressing for so long she snuffled and stormed into Naruto's apartment, basically headbutting him in the chest.

"That…" her shoulders flinched as she tried to speak. "This. It's too much…"

Naruto closed the door in a robot mode and patted Hinata's head ungracefully. She like totally turned on the waterworks. He hadn't thought that a simple report on Uchiha Itachi would affect her this much. He'd just wanted her to know more of Sasuke. So that she could understand him better. Or at least so that she would realize why he was the way he was; how he'd become what he was now. Naruto didn't want to make her cry. He knew Hinata was sensitive, but as to that much…

Nerves, nerves…

_I bet she's totally lost it cuz of Uchiha, _Kyuubi entered the flow of his thoughts.

_The girl's really upset and you…_ Naruto frowned.

_Come on, Uzumaki, give in. Let's bet. For a bottle of sake_. Naruto could basically see a widely grinning Kyuubi in his mind. The flashy fangs were making his eyes hurt.

_You're bust already as it is,_ retorted Naruto and hugged safely the weeping Hinata.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be continued...


	15. Chapter 15

**--15--**

Hinata eyed a steaming tea cup suspiciously and glanced at the yellowish liquid inside of it. The tea was transparent and had no tincture which led to conclusion that the cup was clean. She blinked slowly, because her lids were heavy and puffy from all the tears which just recently had stopped flowing.

Naruto's home was pretty clean. There were no dirty dishes in the sink and the floor was basically shining. Only the bin was overfilled with empty instant ramen cups, and there were pants lying around here and there wrong side out. Yet it was Naruto and everything sort of matched his image, so it was OK.

"Sorry, I only had tea in bags," Naruto hunched in front of a bowl of steaming noodles. They were sitting in front of each other behind a round table in an open kitchen which expanded into a living-room. The main furniture in the room was an old, shabby yet comfy-looking sofa. There was only the dark infamous Naruto's notebook on the table in between them.

"It's alright," Hinata said, sniffing for the last time.

"Really?" Naruto picked at the noodles with his wooden chopsticks and looked up at Hyuuga.

"M," she nodded and took a sip, gripping the cup with both hands.

"If I'd known you'd react this way, I wouldn't have given you the notebook," he mumbled.

"Don't," she put the cup down on the tabletop and finally looked him in the eye. "I probably need a therapy. I should say sorry for barging in like this," she glanced at the slanted clock on the wall. "And this late."

"I don't sleep anyways," Naruto shrugged off. "It's just weird you've come here."

"Wanted to return it," her eyes wandered towards the notebook in the middle of the table.

Naruto eyed her and cocked an eyebrow. Something wasn't right. Who would barge into somebody else's home in the middle of the night in order to return a thing which had no expiration date anyways…?

_The hell you're analyzing everything,_ Kyuubi barged into his thoughts. _The girl just needs a good talking session and you… seriously =.=;;_

If he could've, Naruto would've kicked the fox, but the problem was that even in the most successful case he would have kicked himself as well. So he had to discard this option.

"Just hard to believe, huh?" Naruto grabbed a good lump of noodles and stuffed it down his throat.

"M," Hinata nodded, tracing the surface of the cup with her forefinger. "I just thought he was merely a bad patient, who stubbornly didn't want to get better, but now… now… I feel like… as if somebody's dissipated a fog a little bit… and I can see the reason for it," she sighed. "I think he wouldn't like my reasoning, but… I feel bad I've misjudged him like that…"

Naruto had never thought of this, but now, just as he glanced at her while gobbling his noodles, he noticed Hinata was somewhat different. Different from Hinata he'd still kept in his memory since the Ninja Academy days. Something was different, though he didn't realize he hadn't noticed it before even though the change had been obvious for a while now. Kyuubi just rolled his eyes.

"Oh," he mumbled as if experiencing an epiphany.

"M?" Hinata looked up, leaving the labyrinth of her thoughts.

"You don't stutter anymore," Naruto declared, pointing one chopstick at Hinata.

Hinata blinked and angled her head, contemplating Naruto's announcement slowly.

"Mm," she nodded slowly, feeling that something was changing, but she couldn't exactly tell what it was. "Perhaps I don't stammer as much as before."

"All the cuteness disappeared," Naruto grumbled pouting, kneading his noodles.

"E-excuse me?" blood shot into her head and Hinata stared in astonishment.

"It's just that," Naruto grinned, rubbing his head in a wide motion. There was a green onion stuck in between his front teeth. Hinata barely held back a snigger. "Heh, heh… well, when you'd blush and stutter, I used to think, waaaaaaaaa~ how cute… now, it's sorta," he shrugged. "You're more serious."

"You mean – more difficult of approach," Hinata said, surprised she was able to say this collocation out loud.

"Oh," Naruto stared. "Yeah… prolly…"

Environment surely influences the person, Hinata thought. She guessed that a few weeks in Uchiha's company made her more resistant to the comments of the outsiders. If Naruto had said "how cute" to her like a few years or even months ago, she would have flopped over, but now her brain answered: "Aha, so what? You still have no idea how to seal off the blood limit."

Hinata shook her head. Whether she liked it or not, the proportions of thoughts her brain processed were changing gradually. She didn't know yet whether it was for the better or for the worse.

"Well," Naruto coughed. "Anyways, just don't tell him I've told you everything… well… you know," he pointed his chin at the notebook.

"Of course, I understand," Hinata nodded and Naruto watched her for a while, chewing his noodles with occasional vegetables.

"And what d'you make of Sasuke? Scary much?" he asked suddenly.

"Sorry?" she got caught by surprise. "No. Why… I know I should be wary of him, but he's just another patient who needs help…"

"Thanks…" Naruto mumbled incoherently.

"Eh?" Hinata leaned forwards.

"Before," he hugged his bowl of noodles and looked down sadly. "When I'd visit him, he would only lie in bed and he didn't even talk to me… Well, he would curse from time to time if I'd offend him for real in order to shake him up… but ever since the New Year… whenever I come over, he's sitting at that table and the other day he even agreed to play cards with me…"

"Who won?"

"He did…" Naruto grumbled angrily. Hinata giggled silently. "Anyways…" Uzumaki perked up. "I've no idea what you've done, but really thanks a lot."

"I just… patients who don't want to get better drive me crazy…"

"Oh, Sasuke's really good at it…"

They looked each other in the eye and burst out laughing simultaneously. Hinata would've never thought that Uchiha Sasuke would be the thread, connecting her to Naruto, but now they had a topic for conversations of mutual interest and Hinata didn't stumble over every other sentence. She mentally kicked herself slightly irritated – why was she able to be normal only when she was talking of serious matters and her job?

"He must be really distressed about his brother," Hinata said, gripping the tea cup tight.

"Even if he is, he shows that to nobody," Naruto shrugged and, noticing a weird glance Hinata was giving him, he weighed down his head. "Tchi~ of course he's distressed," Naruto snatched at his hair. "I would've gone mad a long time ago if I were him."

"He must've been an exceptional person," Hinata reached out her hand and stroked her fingers over the cover of the notebook.

"He was," Naruto nodded. "I'm actually really sorry everything's ended this way. Itachi-san could've taken down old man Jiraiya himself… and now, all he left is my headache and that person without inner balance in the hospital of Konoha…"

...

"What did you do to Naruto?" Hinata noted.

"What did you do to Hinata?" he retorted smiling sadly. "We have to steady down at least a lil' bit, don't you think? Baba makes me work like a horse in order to see if I'm suitable to be a Hokage later. And I will be a Hokage one day," he winked and pointed his finger at Hinata. She smiled, letting her cheeks tint in a barely visible pink, and leaned her chin onto her hand.

"You don't change after all, Naruto-kun," she said.

"Is it good or bad?"

"Good," she nodded.

And it was really good indeed. Even if sometimes Naruto did try to act like a mature and decent young man, his wayward nature would still come out from time to time in the most unexpected moments. She sat there basking in his sun, getting calmer and putting stray thoughts back in place. Naruto was so simple and it was so easy with him. One always knew what to expect. He probably wouldn't be able to commit something unexpected… Well, he could surprise her, but he would never do something special or shattering, turning her world upside down in 180 degrees… Like Uchiha Sasuke.

Hinata smiled. They were the best of friends, but they were different like night and day. If one was winter, then the other was summer. Or the other way round, but never the same thing at the same time. Hyuuga listened to her calm heartbeat and lifted the cup to her lips, ready to drink it all and go home. She finally decided to delve into the blood limit research 100%. Some seal, mark or a sign… Or a medical jutsu which would lock the sharingan deep inside, enclose it in total isolation and hide it in a far corner of Uchiha's blood system…

"Oh…" she heard a puzzled Naruto and looked up. "Are you expecting someone?"

"Me?" Hinata blinked. "No… why…"

"I'm not too good with chakra detection, but when one is burning so brutally that…

"What?"

WHAM~!!

Naruto's apartment door fell inside light as a feather, torn away from the hinges. The shock made Naruto throw his noodles up and they stuck to the ceiling, while the bowl landed onto the table with a great clang.

A very angry shinobi tumbled inside with a snowstorm. Snowflakes were twirling around his long black hair. Hinata stared in astonishment.

"N-nii-san?!" she grabbed at the backrest of the chair.

"Hinata," Neji narrowed his bright misty eyes. "What's the time?"

"Er…" she turned her head to see the slanted clock on the wall.

"Home! Now," the cousin ordered.

"Oops," Naruto hid under the bowl.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be continued...


	16. Chapter 16

**--16--**

"You're weird," Hinata said, warming up at a hastily started fire.

"Why?" Neji asked, avoiding her eyes.

"Is this home?" Hinata waved her hands, covering the flower beds nearest to them.

It was unbelievable, but Neji did hunch a little bit. They were sitting on a lawn in the glassy garden, watching the spires of flame playing lazily in the fire.

The notebook had remained in Naruto's apartment. As well as the dislocated door. Hinata even got a little bit angry; since Neji had no plans of helping Naruto put the door back onto the hinges. Her only consolation was the fact that Naruto's floor was so hot that even a bigger than usual gust of wind wouldn't have cooled the apartment to the fullest.

And only if someone could've captured the look on her face when she eventually figured out that Neji was dragging her anywhere but home…

"It's too late, the gates would be closed," he said leaning back, his hands resting on the ground.

Hinata eyed him as if he were mad.

"I realize it's past 2 am in the morning," she uttered. "But that's the weakest argument I've ever heard. Even if it were closed, you could still go smashing through a wall."

Neji felt as if he'd been building a house of miniature boxes and they suddenly collapsed all together.

"Mngmng," he produced a weird sound and stretched full-length on the grass. The ground was so flat that not a single knot bugged his back.

Hinata followed his suit and lay down next to him. The hood of the garden wasn't snowed-in and she could see stars twinkling behind thin tree branches. Dark velvet moonless (the latter was hanging on the other side of the dome) sky was studded with thousands glowing pinheads. Some were brighter, some were barely visible, but Hinata couldn't take her eyes off them.

"It'll be cold tomorrow," she said out of the blue.

Neji lay with his eyes closed for a while, enjoying the silence which was interrupted only by Hinata's silent breathing and the constant crackling of the fire. He was having a slight headache and he could tell his consciousness was evading him. Having no wish to fall asleep, Hyuuga eventually opened his eyes and gave a slow sigh, thinking of the best way to strike a conversation, but ever since his childhood he had never been a good conversationalist, except for one topic – determinism.

"Hina, what's going on?" he breathed out slowly.

"I have no idea," Hinata shook her head, keeping her eyes on the sky.

"You're like obsessed."

"I can't find the answer," Hinata blinked rapidly, because her eyes began stinging again and she hid her face behind her hands.

"What answer?" Neji asked, worried about the sorrow in her voice.

"How to seal the blood limit…"

"What is up with you and blood limits really…" Neji grumbled.

"I know I could solve everything eventually," Hinata was more or less talking to herself. "But there's no time left…"

"Time?" Neji found a new word in the usual rant of his cousin, and he snatched it.

"Two weeks."

"Until what?"

"Until the ANBU mission."

"What mission?"

"ANBU wants sharingan," Hinata explained.

"But if you seal the blood limit…" Neji turned his head to her, and Hinata turned at him as well and stared at him with her misty eyes, trying to instil a thought. Her face said – well, that's what I'm trying to…

"That's the point, huh?" Neji gave a wry smirk, focusing his gaze on the celestial sphere again. "Why are you getting so worked up over him anyways?"

"How can one assign a blind person to a mission?"

"As far as I've heard, his blindness is artificial and it's possible to reset his sight anytime he wants…"

"Then he'll go blind for sure!" Hinata raised her voice and clamped her mouth with her hand alarmed, when Neji turned to her surprised.

"Hina?" he cocked an eyebrow.

Hinata sighed and sat up, putting her hands onto her knees, staring at her feet. Neji sat up too, waiting for her to speak. The fire was dying gradually, flames were becoming smaller and smaller.

"It's just that sometimes I feel as if I can go neither forward nor back," she said eventually. "If we leave it as it is, he'll go blind, but he will still have the information in his blood. If we seal the blood limit – his eyes will be saved, but then he won't be able to restore the Uchiha clan."

"Then he has to choose what he treasures more," Neji declared, watching the charred firewood flicker in red.

"I have no idea," Hinata shook her head. "And then there's this sealing thing," she rubbed her tired face. "If only it were as simple as blood transfusion…"

"Hina, you do realize that sharingan is in his brain and not in his blood, right?" Neji said calmly.

"Wh—" Hinata jammed up, staring at her cousin in astonishment. "Why do you think so?"

Neji rolled his eyes as if tired of her naivety.

"You should've read the clan history instead of medicine books," he said and ripped the protector off his forehead. "Why do you think I have this seal on my forehead and not anywhere else?" he pointed at the Hyuuga seal. "All the secrets of byakugan are here," he tapped his own temple. "It's the same basic principle with sharingan as well…"

Hinata gawked at him dumbly with her mouth open, resembling a fish thrown ashore. It was late, but her gear of a brain finally began working and random words jumped from one hemisphere to the other.

These words weren't written down in a nice handwriting. They weren't said aloud. It was more like separate images, flashing down a dark tunnel, changing rapidly, as if somebody was shuffling them with a remote control. There was no clear chronological order. Chakras and seals, charts of eye structure, energy channels… Hinata almost slapped herself.

"I'm so stupid," she gasped staring Neji in the eye. "So utterly stupid…"

"Well, if you say so," the cousin shrugged, smiling wryly.

"No!" Hinata crept closer on her knees and grabbed Neji at his broad shoulders. "I mean," her eyes were shining (and not because they were basically white). "I always look for an answer somewhere far away, while it's usually hidden right…" she halted, glancing at Neji's forehead. "Here…" Hinata covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes widened.

Neji frowned.

"What now?" he asked.

Hinata reached out her hand hesitantly and stroked her shaky fingers over the seal lines. Neji almost flinched when her cool fingertips touched his skin.

"Why of course," she whispered. "I can use juinjutsu…"

Neji recoiled from her as if she had a fatal virus.

"If you use the Main Family's seal on Uchiha," he clenched his teeth tight. "You'll fry his brain up."

"I can modify it," she said firmly.

"Hina," Neji shook his head. "It's an A-class jutsu. Not everyone can perform it. And it's accessible only to the Main Family."

"Technically, I'm still the heir of the Main Family," Hinata pursed her lips firmly before carrying on. "I can claim my rights. I can ask father to teach me that… besides," her eyes became softer. "If I knew how to use juinjutsu, I would be able to cancel yours…"

"Hina, stop being ridiculous," Neji couldn't take it anymore. He stood up.

"I'm not being ridiculous," Hinata retorted firmly, standing up as well.

They stared at each other in the soft twilight of the garden. The only source of light was the stars up above and the barely smouldering fire on the ground. Charred firebrands furrowed the torrid fire in dark veins, but it was so dark all around that it was basically too hard to discern colours anymore.

Neji glanced at Hinata's tightly clenched fists and firmly locked teeth. Part of her face was in the shadows but there was an unmistakable resolution in her misty eyes, and Neji secretly began wondering what Uchiha had done to her, if she was ready to climb every mountain for that petty creature.

***

Spar with the blond had gone not too bad. He could tell that goof wasn't trying and was holding back, but that was to be expected from a person, distinguished for his excessive compassion.

Sasuke sat down on the chair at the window in his ward and rubbed his bruised elbow. Since the beginning of the week Naruto had been dragging him outside to spar every single day in order to stir his stiff muscles. The reason was pretty simple – if, at the worst, Sasuke HAD to take part in that ANBU mission, he had to be prepared for that. Sakura refused to unblock his sight nerve for training, but Sasuke wasn't complaining much, as it helped in developing his other senses.

At first, on the very first day Naruto dragged him outside by force. Sasuke was famous for his speed. Naruto could outdo anyone in stamina, so their clash was like a confrontation between an invincible obstacle and an unstoppable force, but Sakura weighed it in Naruto's favour, as she almost smashed Sasuke's spine into the tiniest of pieces.

Friends from the old Team 7 absolutely didn't want him to participate in the ANBU mission, but them two always followed one principle – hope for the best, be ready for the worst. Therefore Sasuke had to suffer Naruto's jokes and his lousy kicks and punches for a few days in a row. But Uchiha had to admit it did his body good, as it had been used to idling lately.

On the morning of the second day his muscles and tendons ached pretty bad when he got up from bed. Even Uzumaki noticed there was something wrong with Uchiha's speed, because even though he was blind, at first he still managed to be faster than that gluttony. So for the next two days the Kyuubi vessel did not push Uchiha at all which only made him mad, fuelling his desire to recover his previous shape. Eventually it all ended up in Sasuke doing push-ups in his ward in the mornings.

However, despite the fact that his warrior spirit was rising, he was being slightly irritated by such schedule as well. He enjoyed his solitude. And now he had to suffer Naruto every day. He was used to lying in bed and thinking of… nothing. And his only proper occupation was waiting for the weekend, because on weekends…

Sasuke stopped rubbing his bruised elbow with bitter-smelling ointment and weighed down his arms, hiding his pale skin under long dark sleeves. Daily winter training troubled him less than thoughts about Hyuuga Hinata which visited him night after night. Most of the time he just tried to pretend that this didn't exist and he just had to master his mind to the fullest, so it would be the superior force. But the time was running week after week and Sasuke's chest was lead bound, once he realized he would wait for her every single time. And the last weekend he even wished to see her face… Sasuke clenched his fists. And today she was late…

It was long after midnight, but he persistently wasn't going to bed. He was waiting alone in his darkness and concern gripped him harder with every second that passed, yet he was also mad at himself for worrying this much. Naturally, he could've pretended to be totally stupid and say that all of this happened solely because of tomatoes and he was trying to use her as much as possible. Being nothing but rational he could've explained this by the fact that she was trying to save his eyesight and he was simply inclined to cooperate with a person, who wanted to help him. Yet Uchiha realized that this would mean lying to himself. And he got mad even more, for he'd got himself into something, which was hard to get out of.

So when silent yet rapid footsteps finally echoed in the corridor, he gripped the ointment tube firmly, totally ignoring the fact that due to energy excess aluminium was pricking his palm and the tube was cracking itself. His breathing was slow and deep. His heart was beating painfully and his head was so heavy... as if Naruto had left a few bowels of ramen on it. She was almost here, almost right here. He could even hear her shallow breathing. The door opened after a second…

"I'm sorry I'm late…"

"Out!"

Hinata flinched as if struck by a lightning and froze, staring at Uchiha, who was standing at the window, shivering with tremendous tension. She couldn't understand what was going on. Her cheeks were flushed from feverish running. Yes, she was late. But she had a sound reason for it and she wanted to share it with him, but now, right after she entered through the door, she was sent into a knockout. Just out of the blue.

"Excuse me?" she said in a wheezy voice, labouring for breath after all the running.

"I said OUT!" Uchiha raised his voice. That snappy and sudden yell gave her goosebumps all over. "And don't come back ever again!" he added, throwing the ointment tube at her.

Hinata, who'd still kept her hand on the door handle, gasped silently and, calculating everything in a nanosecond, she closed the door behind her in a flash, because she would have wasted too much time, if she had tried to avoid the aluminium flying at her.

More dead than alive she found herself in the hospital corridor again and she leaned at the Uchiha's ward door, breathing heavily. She heard the aluminium tube smash into the door soundly on the other side. Her eyes were looking left and right. She put her hand to her chest trying to still the wildly beating heart. It had been really tired of physical strain before, but now it was running due to a mere fear and surprise.

It was unexpected. Too unexpected. It totally unbalanced her and Hinata snatched at her head, trying to figure out where she'd gone wrong. It reversed her mood in 180 degrees and she felt as if she'd fallen out of a fast-moving carriage. She felt so awesome just a few seconds ago, she wanted to tell Uchiha that she'd finally made a significant progress.

After a few days of persistent sitting at her father's doorstep, Hyuuga Hiashi had finally agreed to talk with her about the Hyuuga juinjutsu. The talk wasn't anything like teaching, but even so, keeping in mind the reputation of the Hyuuga head, it was a great achievement. Hinata believed that she would eventually succeed in persuading her father (in some miraculous way) at least to show her the way that juinjutsu was performed. But even now she felt as if she'd moved mountains. And she was going to share her achievement with him, but Uchiha simply banished her out.

Hinata couldn't understand why. Naturally, she began looking for faults in herself, but this time she didn't want to be the one at fault. She was elated today. She'd felt great until he kicked her out. Hyuuga felt as if she'd been reaching her hands towards the sun like a plant after winter when suddenly someone shut the lid above her head, ordering her to stay put underground forever.

Usually she would have resigned to such decision and opinion of the other person, but Neji's words pierced through her mind: "Yamado Nadeshiko". They echoed for a while, tingling in her ears, and when at last it seemed that the echo disappeared, it repeated itself in a cold voice of Uchiha: "Yamato Nadeshiko"… The name began spinning in her head, ringing in her ears and Hinata closed her eyes.

She got tired. She got tired of being humble and obedient. She got tired of trying and not receiving any reward in return. Yes, it was selfish, but she also wanted at least a little bit of applause. She felt she deserved it. Hinata opened her eyes and frowned, gripping her sweater firmly. She was still breathing hard, but this time it was no longer fear or fatigue – she was taken over by silent and cold anger.

Hyuuga pursed her lips, clenched her left fist and turned the door handle decisively for a second time tonight. She opened the door sharply and stormed inside like a tornado.

Uchiha stood leaning onto the windowsill with his head weighed down, his back on the door. He stretched himself slowly and turned around sensing he wasn't alone anymore.

"Hyuuga?" he asked warily.

Hinata slammed the door soundly.

"No! Now you listen!" she exclaimed and her voice, gaining a few decibels, assumed a completely different ring to it. She exhaled audibly through her nose and took a step towards him. "I didn't come here t-to listen to your orders, understood?" she got right next to him and poked his chest with her forefinger.

Sasuke fought back a hiccough feeling her shoes touch with his slippers. By all means, she was really close.

"A-and before sending someone away you should listen to them," she poked his chest again, staring furiously right into his dark empty eyes, totally ignoring his condition. "Yes, I know I'm late, but I have a good reason for it. And I said I was sorry already, right when I showed up, so why," she hit his chest with her fist. "Why the hell would one kick me out? Huh?"

He was merely listening to her with an illegible mask on his face and he let her crumple him.

"I just want to help you a-and if you're ashamed then grow up," her trembling voice rang in his ears, when her fist landed onto his shoulder. "Because i-if you think that I pity you or something, then you're very wrong!" she cried out, using him as a boxing bag, and she was telling the truth – even after finding out the truth about Itachi, she felt no pity for Sasuke whatsoever, it was some other scale which she didn't analyze. "I don't pity you, you understand?" she snuffled afraid she might start crying, because Sasuke was stoically suffering every single blow she struck, without any obvious trace of emotions. "I'm angry, you hear me? Angry, angry, angry!" she punched him in the chest with every word she said and eventually, once her rant was over, Hyuuga began pulling back breathing heavily and slightly scared of what she had done.

She held her breath, slowly turning away from Uchiha and hoping he wouldn't strangle her, because the newly awake sense of self-defence told her that provocations wasn't the beeline to Uchiha's heart.

She was almost out of his personal space, when her wrist was gripped by iron claws suddenly. She knew those fingers all too well and Hinata turned to look at Sasuke alarmed. His face was stone cold as if made of marble and it was impossible to read. Even if his eyes had been alive, they would have hidden his thoughts perfectly as well.

He pulled her to himself suddenly and Hyuuga, gasping silently, found herself right in front of him. She even had to prop her free hand into his chest otherwise, after losing her balance, she would have smashed her nose into his sweater. She looked and up tried to swallow, but she was too stupefied so her mouth went dry and she didn't hear a thing. Blood throbbed in her ears feverishly. Her nose was at his lips.

Hundreds of tiny needles pierced her temples when Uchiha's free hand landed onto her face and he traced down her cheek with his thumb, as if trying to discover her features. As if trying to draw her in his mind. She was about to say something, even though she did not trust her tongue in such situation entirely, when her cheek was gripped by his whole palm and her face was lifted upwards. His claws, locking her wrist, did not relax.

"I'm angry too," he said and kissed her.

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To be continued…


	17. Chapter 17

**--17--**

He was a part of solid mass which had no beginning and no end. It was warm and comfortable. Only a madman would've chosen to leave this cosy haven. Yet he suddenly felt being cut out of it with a cold raw blade. It was piercing right through him, leaving pain and splinters, as if the blade wasn't sharp enough.

Sasuke slipped from sleep darkness into waking darkness, breathing heavily, sitting up in bed in a flash as though he'd been bitten. He was cold and he couldn't catch his breath. His hair was sticky and, when a shudder ran down his back, Sasuke realized blinking rapidly that he was wet. It wasn't a simple sweaty moist, he was drenched through. Water was running down his nose.

His temples ached due to the lack of sleep and he would've wanted to rip apart the first person he came across, just like a bear woken from hibernation. The fact that he couldn't see anything only magnified his rage. And once his water-full ears caught a muted snigger, Uchiha leapt out of his bed towards the sound immediately.

His fingers gripped the loser's neck and they rolled down the floor. Sasuke's blanket wrapped around their legs.

He didn't need to see in order to know who his victim was. His fingers touched a twisted necklace. And he'd merely had way too many confrontations with this asshole before, so there was no way for him not to know, whom he held flattened to the floor.

"Naruto, you fucking freak," Sasuke hissed at the blond's ear. "Are you tired of living?" his grip tightened around Uzumaki's neck and he hit Naruto's head into the floor.

"Ow," Naruto closed his eyes with no intention to free himself. "Wa~ you really got mad…" an empty bowl, which had some cold water inside just a few moments ago, was lying dropped on the floor.

"Well, what do you think?" Uchiha growled pulling back and trying to get up, but his feet got entangled in blanket folds and he would've flopped nicely face to the ground if Naruto hadn't jumped to his feet suddenly and helped him.

It all ended up in Sasuke hanging on Naruto arms like a spineless doll. It took a few more seconds for them to realize what it looked like from viewer's perspective. Sasuke snarled silently, gripping Naruto's arms.

"If somebody walked in through the door right now," he said. "I'd smite them."

"Mhm," Naruto uttered baffled, puffing Sasuke's dark hair off his field of vision.

Uchiha stretched himself gradually, still holding at Naruto's arms, and once he was firmly standing on his feet he frowned, feeling the shudder running up and down his back. Sasuke pushed Naruto back harshly and, losing his balance, he flopped backwards on the floor.

"Ow," Uzumaki frowned.

"Are you out of your mind?" Sasuke grumbled, wiping his wet brow with the only dry patch of his shirt remaining, after Naruto flushed him with a whole litre of tap water.

"It's not scientifically proven yet," Naruto grinned, but Sasuke totally ignored his lame jokes.

Uchiha bent down and lifted his blanket from the ground. He walked towards his bed slowly, leaving Naruto on the floor. The room had a heating, but Sasuke felt terrible, just like a drenched rat. He threw the blanket onto the bed and instead of sitting down to rest his ringing head, he headed towards the closet. Naruto hiccoughed and crawled over just in time to move the bowl out of Sasuke's way, otherwise he would've tumbled down again.

Naruto gave a sigh of relief, hugging the dark bowl, when Sasuke opened the closet and pulled off his wet black shirt. His white back was set with lots of bruises, given him by Naruto in the past few training days. But Sasuke felt no pain. He just blotted up his hair with a dry part of his shirt and then threw the garment onto the floor.

"Um yeah," Naruto agreed getting up slowly. "Maybe I did overdo a lil'…"

Sasuke snorted in disdain, groping around the hangers and pulling sturdy flannel shirt out. Uchiha knew why Naruto had come – he wanted to drag him out for another training session. And for the sake of peace and quiet Sasuke decided not to resist. He decided to drift along so that it would end as soon as possible.

When Sasuke began buckling up his dark red tartan shirt, which he'd managed to put on the wrong side in, Naruto glanced outside and narrowed his eyes. Bright winter sun was dazzling him, and the omnipresent snow just reinforced the glaring effect. Due to such circumstances he basically had no advantage against Sasuke in fight. One was blind because of the light; the other was lost in darkness.

Uzumaki turned at his teammate, who was putting on a sweater. He looked rather bloated today. As if he'd been contused or fallen off a tree. On his way to the hospital Naruto had expected to find him at the table, all perky and ready to go (though Uchiha would've never admitted that himself), but to his surprise Naruto found him deep asleep. Well, and the rest was a history already…

"Listen," Uzumaki rubbed his head and messed up his dishevelled golden locks even more. "You're an early riser. But you were snoring like a boar when I showed up… what were you doing last night?"

Sasuke froze in the middle of putting on his boots which were rather tattered already. Naruto's method of waking a person up had been all over his brain so far, and therefore only his short-term memory was at work.

All of the veins on his face shrunk in a flash and he became even paler, as if he'd been coloured with a chalk. The sweater was warm, but he got goosebumps all over.

The first thing he remembered was a pressure on his chest he'd felt when her hands propped against him, searching for support. He could still feel the traces of her fingertips when her hands slid upwards slowly and she gripped at his shoulders. Then her fingertips had caught his denuded neck and a shiver ran down his spine at the recollection.

His hands also wandered around until eventually they were holding each other so close he found it hard to breathe. On the other hand, Sasuke weighed down his head while closing the closet; it had been hard to breathe for another reason as well.

At first he'd done it for one sole reason – boredom. Yes, he was mad at himself for some particular thoughts and, most probably, the most logical way out at the time would've been kicking Hyuuga out, but exactly that moment Uchiha was simply too tired of the routine, tired after his training, slightly irritated and rather unbalanced. He just wished he could commit something impulsively for once. This kind of thought wasn't clearly stated. He just felt the action would match the situation present. He didn't care how Hyuuga would react to this. In fact, he even secretly hoped that she would freak out and run away.

But after a few seconds of standing like a dry and dead tree trunk, Hinata came back to life eventually and answered his kiss. And first she was slow and unsure, but since she was a diligent student, she caught up with Uchiha pretty soon and eventually he ran out of breath as his four senses were assaulted all at the same time. He felt being crumpled. And it's not like he didn't like it.

It was hard to say when he gave the first loud sigh. That sigh was full of something deep and smothered and once it echoed in Hyuuga's ears she realized what was going on. She pulled back baffled and shocked, but Uchiha felt no fear in her. She just freed herself from his embrace slowly and walked out of the ward silently, leaving nothing but emptiness behind. He had trouble falling asleep later on.

"_Moshi moshi~!_" Uzumaki fished him out of his daydream. "Were you drinking yesterday or something?"

"No," Sasuke turned around and headed towards the door, indicating that Naruto wouldn't get anything else from him.

His character was the worst one could ever imagine. He was unpredictable, nonchalant and cold. He paid no regards to anything or anyone. It was hard to understand whether he was reliable or not. And there was no use in trying to comprehend his thoughts. Yet, shoving all the "spiritual" values aside, the remaining package was completely different.

She hunched and pulled her blanket up to her nose. His raven-black hair was always dishevelled, but it was soft and nice to touch. He was moon-pale but despite a few scars here and there his skin was smooth and firm. He eyes were dead, but they were two bottomless wells, darker than the night itself, and she wasn't afraid to drown in them. Perhaps he was slightly too skinny after a few months in the hospital, yet he was still well-built and had wide shoulders which made you wanna drool on them until your body succumbed to a total dehydration.

Hinata whined and hid under the blanket. It wasn't too bad that she'd had a proper snog with Uchiha late last night. The bad thing was she wanted more.

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To be continued…


	18. Chapter 18

**--18--**

One thing was certain – she would never be able to learn juinjutsu in just a few days. While listening to an ambiguous talk of her father, Hinata mentally translated everything in her own language. And as seconds passed she fell deeper and deeper.

The point was that she would've been able to use that damn jutsu, but only a after a few years of intensive training. Or maybe a little bit sooner. But she would've still had to modify it. Yet in order to reach that level she would've had to take down a very high wall, namely – Hyuuga Hiashi.

He would've asked for explanations. Explanations, which Hinata wouldn't be able to provide him with. Or explanations which the head of the clan wouldn't have liked. Therefore she listened to him till the very end, then thanked him politely and left her father's office in silence. And there was no clear aim left. Her brain was simply digesting the information received.

Eventually she found herself in the Hyuuga library and flopped onto a table next to a bookshelf in the utmost corner of the room. Her head hurt and eyes stung. She wanted to scream and rip the books apart, but she had no strength left. Terror struck her once she thought about the oncoming weekend. She could offer no solution. She felt ashamed. Ashamed and scared.

Hinata looked up and stared at an inkpot on the table. A few blank sheets of paper lay next to it. She frowned. The main dilemma was thus: she wanted to save his eyes, but she would've dared to meet once more the blind Sasuke only. A sole thought that she would have to meet the seeing black eyes one day… Somehow, after all she'd done she felt that his blindness gave her a certain sense of security. And when she thought that he could see her now as…

Hinata whined and reached out for the inkpot. She took a white sheet of paper, dipped a thin brush into the dark ink and began drawing and painting. Off-the-cuff. She had no idea what she was doing.

She drew a sun and its rays. And there were dark spots in the sun, shadowing the light, but they weren't out of context. It seemed as though those black whirls were supposed to be there. She drew a circle, then another one and another one. She rimmed and filled every single one of them with hundreds of thin, vein-like rays. Once she was finished, Hinata pulled back and took a better look at her drawing. She frowned. She thought she'd drawn a sun, but it looked more like…

"Hinata?"

She flinched and covered her drawing with her hands as if it were a porno magazine. The ink hadn't dried off in places so it soaked into her palms. Hyuuga looked up timidly and her throat went dry as she saw father standing nearby. His marble face, long straight hair and dark clothes formed one formidable unit which would've let any passerby speechless. He emanated grandeur and cold, and Hinata couldn't overcome it. She just got used to pretending she didn't notice it throughout the years.

"I have been told that you have been spending excessive amounts of time in the library lately," Hiashi said and Hinata swallowed hard, staring at her knuckles. "And certainly not in the gardening section," he added and Hinata hunched – father was never too keen on her hobby.

"I…" she clenched her fists, smudging the black rays in process. "I was simply…"

"What is this?" he reached out his hand and touched the sheet of paper with two fingers. She had nowhere to hide anymore.

"I… was drawing… a-a little," Hinata said lifting her hands and letting father take the drawing.

Hiashi slowly raised the paper up to his eye level and took a closer look at it. His jaw tensed. He threw the drawing onto the table and walked around it slowly, eventually leaning against the bookshelf in front of Hinata. The library was huge and empty, but father's steps were so silent that there was no echo of his footfall. Hinata began rolling the corner of the paper on her finger. She had no courage to look up.

"Hyuuga Hinata, do you have anything to tell me?" Hiashi hid his hands in his wide haori sleeves.

"Excuse me?" she looked up surprised and met father's eyes. Embarrassed she looked down again.

"You have been paying Uchiha regular visits for the past few weeks. You have even been seen in his company in the streets of Konoha… Hinata, did you think that I wouldn't find out about this?" his voice was calm and emotionless, but Hinata felt her skin being pierced by sharp blades.

"I have done nothing wrong," she said softly.

"Whether you have done or haven't, that is not a problem. You just should know your limits and act according to your social status."

"I was asked to help and I agreed," Hinata said insistently in her quiet voice. "And it has nothing to do with my social status," she looked up and withstood father's glance. "All patients are equal."

"Are you visiting others so diligently as well?" Hyuuga Hiashi cocked an eyebrow fractionally.

"I made a promise. Besides, when our family was asked for help…"

"Hinata, don't start on this one…"

"I cannot BELIEVE," her voice gained a few decibels. "That the most intelligent members of our family weren't able to find the cause of Sasuke's illness…"

"Sasuke's?"

"I mean, it was so simple. Was it hard to be humane and help a lonely person?!" she exploded suddenly and then covered her mouth realizing that her voice echoed throughout the library. Her widely opened eyes were full of fear and astonishment. "I-I'm sorry," she stuttered.

Hiashi didn't stir a muscle. His face didn't betray his thoughts. He just looked straight at her for a while and then glanced down at the sheet of paper.

"Is it the reason why you designed a new seal?" he asked.

"M?" she gave a faint squeak, looking up at father and then gawking at her drawing.

"Three sharingan tomoe in the sun," Hiashi explained and Hinata cupped her mouth with both of her hands totally shocked, finally realizing what she had drawn. "The basic structure seems similar to the one of summoning technique, but it looks more like a fusion between a curse seal and the Hyuuga juinjutsu…" Hiashi hushed and peered at her as if he'd just seen his daughter in a completely different light. "What are you trying to do? Lock the sharingan inside of him and block any outlet possible?"

"S-something like that…" Hinata nodded, hiding behind the wall of her black hair. Hiashi was slowly putting his thoughts together, watching his daughter and thinking that perhaps he would have to turn everything upside down otherwise the mechanism wouldn't work.

"Yet, in such case, it would be impossible to pass down the sharingan to the future generations…"

"If you knew any other option," Hinata looked up slowly. "Would you tell me?" her eyes were ice-cold and Hiashi clenched his teeth realizing Hinata was testing him. And perhaps she was expecting an angry response from him or even a blow. However he just reached out his hand eventually and grabbed the sheet of paper with the seal drawn on it.

"It's not finished yet," he said rolling the paper like a scroll. "The development of the seal will take some time," he slid the newly made scroll into his long sleeve and left Hinata's corner silently.

As she was left alone, Hinata stared somewhere at the bookshelf where her father had just been standing, but she could see nothing. She gasped dumbly like a fish thrown ashore. She felt as if she'd just been smacked, but she also felt so light she thought she would float up any second now. As if she was high on helium. Her breathing gradually became rapid, and as she sat there on the chair, Hinata thought startled, that she might be struck by hyper-ventilation.

She suddenly jumped to her feet, tumbling down the chair, and, paying no heed to the fallen furniture, she ran out of the library with her head off.

---

Her legs were shaking as if she were a child, being taken to the dentist for the first time. She swallowed hard and climbed one more step up, clutching to herself a brown crispy paper bag, which had only three tomatoes inside. Well, at least she had an explanation for that one. She could stand her ground by saying that the news she had was a lot better than any food possible. Yet, on the other hand, Uchiha Sasuke was a freak and his value system was totally different than that of an ordinary person, so perhaps he would break her spine in half due to a dose of tomatoes tad too small.

Hinata shook her head and, finally taking over the last step, she paced slowly down the corridor, reading the names of the patients on the door, just as she'd done a long time ago. Tell, leave and go, tell, leave and go, tell, leave and go – she was reciting a special mantra in her head, which was supposed to help her keep the self-control intact. She wanted it to be professional. She had no wish to re-enact the last week incident (at least the logical part of her brain was telling her so), because then it would be hard to concentrate and proceed with her mission which consisted of three parts – tell, leave and go.

She knocked on the greyish door and walked in without a permission. He was standing leaned onto the windowsill with his face at her, wearing nothing but navy blue tee and black sweatpants. He had simple hospital slippers on, his hands were hidden in his pockets. His hair was very dishevelled as usuall, but blood began pumping in Hinata's temples at a mere sight of him, and she kicked herself mentally, glad at the same time that he couldn't see her blushing face.

When she walked in, he was standing with his head low and eyes closed, listening closely. Just as the door was closed, he raised his head and opened his dark eyes slowly.

She was wearing sandy boots and a part of white fur the boots were padded with was visible at the top of the bootleg. Dark tights pants hadn't changed much since the Konoha Academy days. Lavender Eskimo jacket might've been slightly too puffed and it made her look like a lollipop, but this thought had to go, because it would've led the wrong direction.

Her hands, covered with mittens, were clenching a paper bag and half of her face was swathed with a warm white scarf which only made her blushed forehead look redder, even though part of it was covered by black-blue hair. And her eyes… her eyes were almost as white as that thick scarf. They widened and turned round like two big moons.

"Y-you can see!" Hinata squeaked dropping the tomato bag on the ground. The vegetables rolled down beneath the bed. Sasuke clicked his tongue disappointed and moved away from the windowsill.

"Yes, I can," he confirmed heading towards her and Hinata basically flattened herself against the door, but he merely kneeled down to his bed, with no intention to approach her, and pulled the tomatoes from under the bed. All three of them. One after another. "You're rather clumsy, huh?" he looked up at her and Hinata almost hiccoughed. Those black wells were alive. But his face had remained just as cold. He looked even more dangerous than before.

"W-why?" she choked out.

"ANBU," he shrugged getting up and moved towards the bathroom, with intention to wash the vegetables.

"But the mission is only tomorrow," she said mustering her courage back and following after him. Or today, corrected the voice inside her head, reminding her it was past midnight already.

"Early in the morning," Uchiha answered, his voice accompanied by running water in the sink.

"But…" Hinata found herself on the doorstep of the bathroom.

"Hyuuga, stop being a drama queen. I won't get blind in just a few days," he shook the water off the tomatoes and turned to leave.

"But…" Hinata was still walking and she smashed into his chest. "Ow," she rubbed her bruised nose frowning.

"Are you done yet?" Sasuke asked looking down at her, holding his tomatoes carefully. Hinata looked up and had to blink rapidly, because it really was possible to drown in those black eyes. He sighed and bypassed her, leaving the bathroom. Hinata shook her head and took off her scarf.

The seeing Uchiha was like water running down your fingers. There you have it, there you don't.

"At least promise me, you won't use the mangekyo," she followed him and sat onto the chair at the small table, while he set the vegetables nicely into a white porcelain plate. "We've been working on the seal jutsu for a few days now. There's not much left…"

"Why didn't you tell me that my boots were white?" he asked sitting down in front of her and put his one leg on the other.

"Excuse me?" Hinata blinked bewildered.

"My boots," he pointed his head at the closet behind her back. "Why didn't you tell me they were white?"

"Does it make a difference?" she was clueless. He was surely good at changing the subject. If it hadn't been Uchiha Sasuke, one could've thought that he was trying real hard to avoid any close contact with Hyuuga, because he was… shy?

Hinata let out an uncontrolled snigger and that earned her a cocked eyebrow from Sasuke. He eyed her from head to toes. She was rather beautiful. With all body parts where they were supposed to be. Well, Sasuke knew that quite well already, but it was better to see once than to touch several times… He furrowed. No, that didn't sound right. And besides, it wasn't quite true…

"The difference?" his voice remained calm and emotionless. "A person of my stature looks quite… insane in white boots," he didn't have a heart to say that, in his opinion, white boots made him look like an individual of… unconventional sexual orientation.

"You don't need boots to look insane," Hinata blurted out totally forgetting the possible consequences.

"Oh really?" Sasuke's eyes flashed, as he drummed his fingers onto the tabletop. Hinata shifted uncomfortably and hid her hands into the jacket pockets.

"Why aren't you eating?" she pointed her chin at the tomatoes, keeping her beady eyes on the predator in front of her.

"I'm thinking…" he ground his knuckles into his cheek. "Screw the appetizer; perhaps I should just grab the dessert."

"Dessert?" Hinata looked around and pursed her lips. "I've been told you hate sweets. What dessert?"

"A lollipop," Sasuke gave a wry smirk.

"A whaaaat?"

"You."

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To be continued…


	19. Chapter 19

**--19--**

He landed silently on a wide branch, big enough to hold an elephant, and kneeled down taking a look around. Black eyes coloured in red when he activated sharingan and checked the chakra circulation around. The hideout was clearly here. Even though there was nothing but a scrubland of naked bushes and trees, the hideout clearly had to be here. It was hidden by a well-cast genjutsu.

Sasuke inspected the whole territory again. There was basically no snow around and it gave them an advantage. It was a cloudy night without a moon. It was pitch darkness so the lack of snow only enhanced the ninja camouflage and increased the possibility of successful mission. Sasuke closed his eyes smirking. It was so dark that even a cat would've felt blind. It was weird, but he felt he was in his own element.

Another figure landed onto the branch near him and Uchiha's eyebrow twitched as that person trimmed the kunai bag at his waist way too loud.

"Did you really have to drag along?" he opened his eyes and glanced at Naruto. His dishevelled profile was clearly visible even in the middle of the night. ANBU fox mask hung on the back of his head and Uzumaki himself was wearing a tight ANBU uniform. Sasuke looked almost identical to him with the very same uniform and the same gloves. The only difference was that he had two swords on his back and the ANBU mask on the back of his head had features of a hawk.

"Is it here?" Naruto ignored his question and pretended he was totally engrossed in the mission.

"Yes."

"Head count?"

"Can't tell exactly. Around fifty, might be more underground."

"Eh?"

"Eh what?" Sasuke turned to Uzumaki irritated.

"What do you mean you can't tell exactly, you've sharingan now," Naruto pointed at his friend puzzled. Uchiha rolled his eyes.

"I'm not a Hyuuga, moron. I can't see through walls."

"Ah."

Sasuke focused on the hideout in front of them again, thinking what he should begin with. There were three more members in their team aside from Naruto and him. They were supposed to show up later, when Sasuke would be done with the main guards. He realized that the dirtiest work was left for him to deal with, but Uchiha was a warrior too professional to feel insulted. He was just thinking how he could finish everything as soon as possible. Without the help of those other ANBU at best.

Naruto squirmed beside him and it began working on Uchiha's nerves. He had no doubt in Naruto's combat abilities. The fox, persistence, the powers Itachi had left him and personal charm… i.e. talent made Uzumaki one of the most powerful ninjas of his generation. But his character traits were… highly unsupportable. He even managed to convince the ANBU captain to let him participate in this mission, even though officially he didn't even have an ANBU rank. On the other hand… officially Sasuke was still a genin himself. He neither had passed the chunin exam nor had received a jounin rank from anyone.

Sasuke frowned, mentally coming up with a way to get rid of the guards closest to them, when you're over twenty and you're still a genin – something's not right. That will have to be taken care of in the nearest future. If only I won't go blind, he thought and swallowed. Ah, that was another interesting topic.

"Ey," Naruto crawled close to him.

"What?" Sasuke turned his head to Uzumaki and he suddenly felt cosy and warm, seeing that intelligence-free face. Ergh… something was definitely wrong.

"Just don't use mangekyo, ok?" Naruto said seriously. "Because Sakura told me to look after you. If I don't preserve your eyes, she will smite me for sure…" he winced. "And she really knows how to do that…"

"I know, I know," Sasuke rolled his eyes irritated and a cold shudder ran down his back, remembering the events from a few days back when Sakura had almost shattered his spine. "You're not the first one telling me that…"

"Oh?" Naruto pulled back surprised.

"Listen, baka, shut up, they might hear us," Sasuke hissed through his clenched teeth.

"Who else told you, who else told you?" Naruto was basically bouncing on the branch like a small puppy, with his gloved fists at his mouth. Stars twinkled in his eyes. Sasuke almost felt sick.

"Hyuuga," he blurted out, preparing to jump down and cast genjutsu on four subjects closest to him at the least. Naruto stared at him speechless for a while and then grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Heeeeeee~" he giggled under his breath. "Something's goin' on, eh?" he wiggled his eyebrows and Sasuke regretted seeing that.

"Die," Uchiha grumbled over his shoulder, basically flattening himself at the branch and ready to jump any second, as Naruto suddenly gasped and snatched him at his shoulder. Sasuke frowned, because that shoulder still hurt since last Sunday. "The hell, what now?" he turned to Naruto, losing his patience. There were two astonished eyes staring at him.

"Then… if Hyuugas can see through walls," Uzumaki mumbled. "Does that mean they can see through clothes too?"

Sasuke pursed his lips. He really didn't want to hear anything more. He had to deal with the mission first, then think about that stupid family and their all-seeing eyes. Sharingan began spinning and he swooped down like a hawk finally decided which mouse he should snatch upon.

He was dashing from one guard to the other and his speed could only be outdone by the legendary Konoha Flash – Namikaze Minato. The ninjas didn't sense Uchiha's blade coming. Making a lap around the shrubbery and leaving the mowed down men lying around like the rays of sun next to a huge pancake, he turned to a loud noise behind him.

He saw twinkle something white which resembled an ANBU mask, and then part of the scrubland disappeared as Naruto broke the genjutsu and got into the hideout. Yells and clangs of metal reached Uchiha's ears. He rolled his eyes, running after Uzumaki, and gripped the sword in his hand more firmly. He got cramps in his shoulder again when his muscles tensed, but he had no time to think what to do with the disrupted chakra flow in his right deltoid muscle.

Hell with Hyuuga, Sasuke blurted out disgruntled, when two men Naruto had left him to deal with jumped onto him. Noticing the bloody red sword the two ninjas decided to use genjutsu instead of taijutsu, but Sasuke merely narrowed his eyes, mocking their feeble efforts, and left them deal with their own illusion, countering their attack with a simple genjutsu reflection. His shoulder still ached.

… … …

"I-I think it's time for you to go to sleep," Hyuuga said then, gripping the chair elbow-rests firmly. Her knuckles went white. "Leave the tomatoes for tomorrow," she tried to get up.

"Are you running away?" Sasuke asked airily, angling his head, peering at her with his mesmerizing eyes.

"Not running," she stood up slowly. "Walking," she turned away.

"Oh wow, she even has a sense of humour," Uchiha gave a wry smirk.

"Ungrateful…" Hinata mumbled, clenching her fists and turning at him. "You're an asshole only when you can see or I simply haven't noticed it before?"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. Wow. Somebody was having sudden mood swings. Perhaps she had a disrupted hormone balance or something?

"Maybe you just didn't want to notice it," Sasuke shrugged. "Or you didn't care about it then."

"Probably," Hinata narrowed her eyes. "Good night," yet she didn't manage to get close to the door, when Uchiha appeared right in front of her and she had to look up at him shocked again. Needles pierced her temples. His eyes glowed in red. She went numb feeling cornered, but for some unknown reasons those blood-red eyes with spinning tomoe in them looked not only dangerous, but beautiful as well. She couldn't take her eyes off them. Even though she knew that this was the easiest way to a total loss of control.

She was so angry she could cry.

"I've asked you not to use sharingan," she pouted, fisting his chest.

"Are you starting on this one again?" Sasuke asked calmly, seizing her elbow. "It's not mangekyo. Ordinary sharingan will do no harm."

"But still you're a stubborn ass," she hit his chest with her other hand distracted, and Sasuke grabbed her wrist half-irritated, half-amused.

"Your actions and vocabulary surprise me," he said. "Do I need to remind you what happened the last time you behaved like this?" he waved her own hand in front of her face.

Hinata gasped and swallowed hard. Heartbeat echoed in her ears and her face heated up. Sasuke watched in admiration as gradually her pale face turned soft pink and eventually – as red as those tomatoes on the table. Her misty eyes looked like two drops of cream on a ripe cherry.

He pouted, cursing himself for the thought. He never liked sweets so he had no idea why he was having these associations right now. Sasuke quickly searched for another comparison and found it at once – two drops of sour cream on a newly washed tomato. Only salt was missing…

"D-don't," Hinata whispered, keeping her eyes on his face.

"You're weird, Hyuuga," Sasuke said in a soft voice, pulling her closer.

"My name is Hinata," she declared.

"Fine," he leaned down to her ear. "Hinata," he said in a low throaty voice and the poor Hyuuga heir almost peed in her pants, sensing vibration in his chest as he pronounced her name. His free hand slid down her back and slipped behind the puffed jacket.

"Please, don't," her palms propped against his chest, as she stared at his shoulder with her eyes wide open.

"And why not?" he brushed his nose against her cheek.

"Because…" Hinata stuttered. "Because I don't know how to stop a-afterwards…" she blurted out and turned redder than a beetroot.

"Afterwards?" he breathed out into her neck, amused by Hyuuga's weird answers, as his hand was sliding lower.

"Please stop," Hinata whispered.

"Woah, Hyuuga, and when did that "afterwards" happe—"

The moment his hand touched her buttocks everything happened so fast that Uchiha didn't even have time to react. Byakugan was activated in a nanosecond and Hinata's gentle fist smashed into Sasuke's right shoulder.

He felt as if he'd been struck by electricity. Stung by a bee. One moment he was indulging into the unique scent of Hyuuga and the next he was jolted by chidori. He had no idea why he tumbled down, but as he was falling he still managed to think: "Ah crap, juuken…" The shoulder went numb for sure. Perhaps it was even paralyzed. Sasuke couldn't tell how concentrated her attack had been.

As he hit the floor he released a strained sigh and found Hinata with his eyes. He was about to get really angry, but the anger disappeared the moment he saw Hyuuga. She was breathing heavily and her hair was slightly dishevelled. Her fingertips were still glowing faintly with chakra concentrated in them, and her white eyes were basically shining with activated byakugan. The flushed cheeks were seamed with thin vessels. She looked… dangerous. Wild and tameless. And so attractive.

"I asked you to stop," she said shaking her head and the blood-vessels disappeared. "If the shoulder still hurts in the morning, ask Sakura to readjust the chakra flow," she grabbed her scarf and ran to the door. "Good luck with your mission. And please don't use mangekyo!" the door slammed.

Sasuke closed his eyes and hit his head to the floor. What the fuck.

… … …

Sasuke frowned, waving his gloved hand in front of him, trying to scatter the dust hovering underground. What the fuck. It was supposed to be an A-class mission, but it took less than five minutes for him and the crazy blond to deal with all the shinobi in the hideout. They had deflected a rain of shuriken and kunai; Sasuke had to repulse rather decent genjutsu for a few times, but even Naruto had managed to get out of the illusions on his own.

And now they were standing in the middle of the underground base, in the office of the rebellion leader, waiting for the dust to scatter (because Naruto had smashed through the wall on his way here). Well, to be more precise, Sasuke was standing and Naruto was running around with his head off and his butt burning. He accidentally got into Sasuke's way like a minute ago, while he'd been using katon jutsu. Random papers and shards of broken things were lying around on the floor.

"Hot, I'm burning~" Naruto yelled, flailing his arms and running in circles around Sasuke. A vein twitched in Uchiha's temple. Would you look at that – ANBU and Hokage's heir, running around like a five-year-old. "I'M BURNING, HOT~"

GRAB~

"Gah~"

Sasuke snatched him at his nape and threw him butt down into a cracked vessel, which had had some tea in it before. There came a splash and a hiss of a fading fire.

"Ah… crap," Naruto frowned, feeling a good patch of his pants getting wet. The fire was put out now, but it was winter outside and a trip through the forest with wet clothes was a little bit… "Ah shit…"

Sasuke folded his arms across his chest, watching the eternal fusspot.

"Indeed," he said.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be continued…


	20. Chapter 20

**--20--**

He wanted to die. It was so hard he would've rather chosen death than suffering in this vale of woe. Sasuke snatched at his stomach and rolled away moaning quietly. Naruto didn't feel too good either. He would've passed half of his pain to his closest friend were he able to, but the thing was they both felt as if they were about to die.

"Naruto," Sasuke wheezed. "I kill you…"

Naruto frowned, convulsing on the ground, and kicked Sasuke in the shin, but he missed.

"Shut up," he grumbled. "I would slap myself too if I could…"

_I can slap you from the inside, if you're ok with it, Naru-chan,_ Kyuubi wheezed.

Naruto whined in misery and rolled towards Sasuke, still holding at his belly.

It had been a few hours since the end of the mission and the small team had gathered around a modest fire in the middle of the forest. However, one team member just had to break certain rules and pull out a dried dietary from his bag, i.e. a pack of instant ramen. It was this simple plastic cup with dried noodles in it, which turned into an almost edible and almost healthy dish once you poured in boiling water. Then he pulled another one. And another one. And, while the other three ANBU members were checking surrounding territories (since they'd set a camp right next to the annihilated rebellion base), Naruto and Sasuke gobbled up five ramen cups each.

Uchiha didn't quite understand why he agreed to this. He also couldn't understand why he was eating fast food in the first place, because it simply wasn't healthy. Yet, he must've liked Naruto's suggestion to eat everything while the other ANBU were away (Sasuke couldn't boast of tender sentiments towards the ANBU). What was more, Uchiha had been ravenous. And so, it all ended up in them gobbling up so much that their stomachs ached just like back in the Ninja Academy days, when Kakashi would buy them too much Ichiraku Ramen.

Naruto moaned and put his head on his bag, turning his butt to the fire. His pants had dried off a long time ago, but one could never belittle true fire warmth in winter.

"I don't wanna go home," he said tearfully.

"What?" Sasuke answered in a strangled voice. His miserable experience told him that if he didn't asked Naruto what was wrong the latter would nag him until his "curiosity" would be aroused.

"Baba says I need to marry…"

Sasuke opened his eyes and cocked an eyebrow, staring at a dark sky. Well, that was definitely a new one. He turned his head left unwillingly and met Naruto's blue eyes.

Uchiha furrowed. Uzumaki was lying tad too close. There was always a logical explanation to it – they were camping under the open sky in the middle of winter and it was rather cold. Usually normal ninjas would've made a tent under such circumstances, but the two Konoha Ninja Academy graduates were too overfed to actually move their asses and make that tent. So Naruto tried to sustain his body warmth in a different way.

"You? Marry?" deciding to ignore the overtly puny distance in between them, Sasuke set his voice to a neutral one. He could never image Naruto being married to someone. Uzumaki still needed to be taken care of, there was no way he could take care of the others yet. "Isn't it a bit too early?"

"Well, you see," Naruto snuffled and wiped off an imaginary booger. "If I were a civilian it would be too early, but since according to the statistics the average ninja lifespan… is… sorta… short," Naruto grinned simply and rubbed his head. "My current age is suitable for marriage."

Sasuke turned away and looked up at the sky again. Everyone was really moving forwards (or at least they were trying to). Recently he felt as if he'd begun clambering out of a swamp, but once Sakura restored his sight nerve chakra flow, Sasuke tumbled down into the pit again. As if the seeing him couldn't see deeper. Uchiha gave a scornful snort. Bullshit.

"Then go ahead," he said. "What are you waiting for?"

"Well, if you can suggest any lonely heart club, be my guest," Sasuke could swear Naruto pouted.

"What lonely heart club?" Sasuke frowned. "Moron, take Sakura and that's it. Hokage will be satisfied and, I daresay, you too."

"Oh wow, that's SO easy," Naruto rolled his eyes.

"And why not," Sasuke yawned. "You've been drooling all over her since we were little…"

Naruto hushed for awhile, trying to digest what Sasuke had just said. Eventually he just shook his head and decided to approach another front.

"Nah-uh, at least she speaks to me like a normal human being now, I don't wanna ruin that…"

"What's there to ruin," Sasuke sighed. "I think you don't really get what your status is."

"And what is it?" Naruto asked and Sasuke raised his right hand, ready to bend his fingers.

"The son of the Fourth, the heir of the Fifth, the student of one of the Legendary Three, an A-class ninja at the least, and besides," Sasuke turned his head to face Naruto, before bending his pinkie. "When was the last time you looked in the mirror?"

"…" Naruto slowly pulled back from Uchiha by some ten centrimetres. "I don't think Sakura is that… careerist…"

"Augh," Sasuke produced a weird sound. "They're all the same. They just pretend they need all that romantic crap. What they really want is a tough alpha male to sustain the breed."

Naruto's innocent blue eyes blinked. _Oh wow_, Kyuubi replied in his head.

"You need help," Naruto snorted and buried his face into his elbow, trying to keep warm.

"I think I've had enough of it," Sasuke closed his eyes and put his hands under his head.

"Oh…" pity flashed in Naruto's eyes for a tiny nanosecond, but it was replaced by a genuine concern immediately. "But… it's gonna be over soon, right?" he said hopefully. "I've heard Hinata-chan's found a way out."

"M," Sasuke agreed unwillingly.

"But you'd have to dispose of the sharingan, right?"

"M," Sasuke opened his eyes. "Though…" his face softened and Naruto cocked an eyebrow puzzled. "Come think of it, what's the use of the sharingan when…" he hushed suddenly.

"When what?" Naruto asked curiosly.

"…" Sasuke covered his eyes with his hands. "Wait a sec. It's dark."

Naruto gasped and jumped up, dashing to Sasuke. He snatched him at his wrists, and pulled his hands away from his eyes. Uzumaki was basically hovering above him.

"You can't see again, huh?" he exclaimed. "Can't see a thing?!"

"Don't yell," Sasuke frowned when Naruto's sonorous voice echoed harshly in his sensitive eardrums. "And cut it out. It'll go back to normal soon. Let go."

"Whadyamean, cut it out," Naruto gripped Sasuke's wrists tight. "What will I tell Sakura if you go completely blind with me? She'll smite me!"

Naruto watched Sasuke's face and his dark dead eyes totally worked up. The fire cast a red glow and long shadows on them which coloured their campsite in daunting shades. Naruto held his breath, when something flickered in those black eyes and they gradually drowned in red. Soon black tomoe began spinning around the pupils and Sasuke blinked.

"I told you it would go back to normal soon," he growled quietly, marvelling at Naruto's persistence. "And what's with that pathetic face!" Uchiha snarled seeing Naruto's face contorted with worry.

He was about to push Naruto away, because he felt basically imprisoned under such circumstances, but a faint zing reached his ears and instead of kicking Naruto in the chest, Sasuke reached out his hands, snatched Naruto at his shoulders, pulled him close and they both rolled away towards the fire together. Sasuke stopped only when there were approximately ten centimetres left to the scorching fire. He was on top, holding Naruto's head and squeezing it to his chest.

"Mbbmbmmmbm!" Naruto declared stupefied and Sasuke let go of him, looking down. "Bah~" Naruto took a deep breath once he was allowed to. "Well, you know…" either the fire painted his face red or his heart just pumped all of his blood into his head. "I love you, Sasuke, but not that way…"

"Tchi… idiot," Sasuke pulled away, slamming Naruto's head into the hard soil in before that without fail. "You need help."

Uchiha crept to the spot where they'd been lying just a few seconds ago, ignoring Naruto's snorts and complaints. He looked down and smiled. He kneeled down silently, totally satisfied with himself.

"You'll thank me later," he said turning to Naruto with a kunai in hand. Uzumaki gasped and stared in astonishment.

"Remains?"

"Or our ANBU friends stirred another hornets' nest," Sasuke said gloomily and there was so much of killing intent in his eyes, that Naruto gulped insensibly.

"Many?"

"Hush," Sasuke raised his finger, closing his eyes and listening to the sounds all around them. Naruto heard nothing. There was just a crackling fire and an occasional croak of crow somewhere in the forest.

Sasuke suddenly turned in a flash and flung the kunai into the bushes. A muted snap came. Sharingan burned to the fullest. Uchiha snorted with disdain.

"Why, we have blind shinobi attacking us too," he said.

"Blind?" Naruto pouted. "Ah crap, I hate dealing with the blind. Their senses are too damn well developed. And they move real silent…" he hushed as Sasuke turned to look at him with a wry smile on his handsome face.

"As if I wouldn't know what it feels to be blind," Uchiha said and disappeared.

"Ah, hell with him," Naruto cursed, clambering up to his feet and running after his friend. Stomach hurt no longer.

***

He somehow managed to drag his feet to the heavy oak door and pushed it with his bruised shoulder. He walked into the office with his eyes set on the floor. It was warm and cosy inside. He would've gladly fallen flat on the warm floor or gone straight to his room, but he had to meet the manager after all. To show himself up and prove he was still alive.

"I came in just for a sec, 'n then I'll be going back to my cell," Sasuke swallowed, he'd bitten his tongue and it still hurt. "I won't bother you, just can you check the chakra flow in that shoulder?" he looked up. "It still a…"

Sakura's office was brightly lit by a huge chandelier. The snow was falling on Konoha behind the window again and an unpleasant shudder ran down Sasuke's back, when the melting snowflakes penetrated through his hair to his scalp. Sakura was standing in front of her desk. It looked like he barged into her shrine right in the middle of an important conversation. Hyuuga Hiashi stood in front of the medic.

His dark cloak and dark hair contrasted Sakura's bright clothes and her rosy plaits. Sasuke blinked, wondering at the stature of the head of the Hyuuga clan – that old man was tall yet. And the people who seem gigantic when you're a child usually should become slightly shorter once you grow up.

"Hyuuga…" Sasuke nodded unwillingly. "san…"

Sakura narrowed her eyes menacingly.

"You leave for a week and then come back all whacked up," she headed towards Sasuke and he suddenly wished to take a step back, but somehow managed to pull himself together, cursing Naruto for gradually transferring the personal Uzumaki phobia to him as well.

"We didn't have a medic in our team," Sasuke wiped away the blood from his cut lower lip with his fist, when Sakura began checking his shoulder. "And you haven't seen Naruto yet."

"The chakra flow in your shoulder has been restored a long time ago," she propped her palm against Sasuke's collarbone and wrenched his arm at herself – SNAP!

"Argh!" Sasuke frowned.

"Dislocated. And Naruto has the fox, so he heals fast," Sakura explained lecturing him like a primary school teacher. "And you're almost comatose," she propped her left hand at her hip and poked Sasuke in the forehead with her right forefinger. "You're so numb you can't even feel pain well."

"Blow's the same as love, blow's the same as love," Sasuke recited quietly, trying to pull himself together and don't strike her back.

"WHAT?!" Sakura roared.

"Nothing," Sasuke grumbled.

Hyuuga Hiashi marvelled at Uchiha's endurance against his own will and he was attaching him one positive feature after another. Suffers pain well. Patient. Self-possessed. And can even stand Haruno Sakura fuss over him. Besides, a member of a renowned clan (no matter how unfortunate it was); a student of one of the Legendary Three (no matter how perverted that one was); most probably almost an S-class ninja already and plus… would put no mirror to shame.

"Haruno-san," Hyuuga's cold voice echoed in the room and the two former teammates turned to the middle-aged man.

"Ah, yes," Sakura blushed slightly. "Please excuse me," she hit Sasuke on the back and pushed him towards the desk. "Sit down," she pointed at an empty chair next to Hiashi.

Sasuke paced slowly towards the chair and sat down, stealing glances at the head of the Hyuuga clan. He resembled a secure stronghold, and his misty eyes were illegible.

"Take off your vest," Sakura ordered.

"Excuse me?" Sasuke felt ambushed.

"Hyuuga-san developed the seal Hinata had created. We can secure the sharingan now," Sakura explained.

Sasuke's stomach turned into a piece of lead. There was a bit too much of information. The first thought which came to his mind told him to run away as fast as he could, so they had no chance to touch the sharingan and the Uchiha legacy. But then the logics turned on and, even though Naruto had been right about the short life expectancy rate of a ninja, a blind person clearly had no use of the sharingan. Sasuke swallowed hard, remembering Itachi's last minutes. Clearly no use… no use.

"It'll seal sharingan off completely?" Sasuke asked in a dead voice, looking up. His black eyes met Hyuuga's misty stare.

"It will lock any outlet possible," Hyuuga nodded stony-faced.

"But it'll save your sight," Sakura added fast, ready to catch Sasuke if he tried to escape.

"You…" Sasuke began, but then changed his mind. "Now?"

"Yes, now," Hiashi nodded.

Sasuke pursed his lips and weighed down his head. The appearance of Hyuuga Hiashi held some meaning, but his head rang too bad right now to actually figure out what it really meant. They had run off their legs during that mission. They had to fight off the robbers almost every hour on their way back to Konoha. Was there any way to explain them that ANBU had no money? Sasuke was surprised at the state he was in himself. Normally he wouldn't have let anyone lay a finger on him. Perhaps he just didn't care anymore. Or perhaps he just wanted to finish this off as soon as possible.

"Fine," Uchiha said, unbuckling his ANBU vest.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be continued...


	21. Chapter 21

**--21--**

Sometimes certain things are in your blood (literally and figuratively) and it's hard to imagine the world or oneself without them. Even if that feature or a habit is detrimental, hardcore players would never disown it, and supportive philosophizing intellectuals would even add: "But that is what makes him exactly as he is." Yet, many of them forget that people actually change.

Sharingan was in his blood and Sasuke couldn't imagine his life without it. It was part of his legacy. Part of his family. Part of himself. A part too important to dispose of so simply. Uchiha wasn't an Uchiha without the sharingan. Yet, what was really an Uchiha? What were they and was it possible to take pride in your own family? Could their former deeds actually induce this pride into one's heart?

Naturally, Sasuke's always been proud of being an Uchiha. He retained part of that pride even after he'd learned of his clan's black deeds. No matter how deviant that blood was, it still was his.

A complex-free person would just shrug off and pay no attention to what others were thinking, but Sasuke (which was hard for a proud person to admit) was still rather sensitive to the general public opinion. And that opinion was pretty simple: Uchiha + sharingan = it's the way it's supposed to be; Uchiha – sharigan = who needs that trash. Even ANBU had wanted him in their mission only because of the sharigan, although he did keep his promise subconsciously and succeeded without using mangekyo. Yet did this mean that Uchiha without sharigan was nothing?

Thoughts dashed through his head. They were more like emotions and random images than clearly formulated words. Something ignited inside of him, as if a drop of combustible liquid had been poured onto smouldering ashes. He didn't know whether it was his mutiny against fate or doom, but he clearly remembered what happened to the deterministic Hyuuga Neji when Naruto kicked his ass back in their early teens.

Naruto believed that everyone was a master of his own destiny. Sasuke couldn't absolutely agree to such philosophy. Far too often his life had been mangled by other people and the worst thing was he felt absolutely helpless about it. And now he was forced to relinquish sharingan as well. Am I a ninja? He asked. There was no need for an answer. The nature of a warrior was in his blood. Am I a ninja without the sharingan?

Sasuke clenched his fists and exhaled silently through his nostrils. Hell, yes. There had been lots of powerful and formidable shinobi in the course of history, who had no blood limit, but they managed to achieve their status due to their persistence, hard work and talent.

Take Sakura. Her sole personality was enough to make the most dangerous shinobi shrink in terror. Suddenly it became a point of honour for this young man. He had to prove the whole ninja world that he was able to become a respectable and intimidating shinobi without the sharingan as well. Even though the left side of his chest did sting a little once he thought that the legacy of his clan would die along with him, yet sometimes one was supposed to be sacrificed in order to gain the other.

He suddenly wanted the people to associate the Uchiha name with Uchiha Sasuke himself and not the sharingan. It was a challenge the proud Uchiha was ready to accept. To change the attitude of people. To change his own reputation. Change himself…

Sasuke looked in the mirror on Sakura's office wall, but he didn't see his face. His eyes were focused on his left shoulder. A new tattoo on his neck curve, right next to his collarbone attracted his stare. Yet if only it had been a tattoo… a black round seal reminded him of a curse he once had. Even the shape was similar. There were three black motionless tomoe in the middle of the circle, and they looked like sunspots. The only thing missing was rays.

Uchiha sighed and looked down. This sun would never have rays again most probably. Electricity-like shudders were still running up and down his spine after the performance of the jutsu.

"I thought this seal was based on the Hyuuga juinjutsu," he heard Sakura say. "Then why isn't it on…"

"It would affect his brainwaves," Hyuuga Hiashi interrupted her. "We cannot afford that."

Sasuke frowned as his brain caught something suspicious in Hyuuga's voice and his intonation. As if the head of the clan was concerned about him. Since when did Hyuugas care about the others? Uchiha shook his heavy head which clearly said he was suffering from the lack of sleep. He was about to buckle up his ANBU vest and get the hell out of there, and pity himself, and think of all the consequences in the morning, when he felt a weird tingling on his seal, as if somebody was softly tracing his skin with a needle.

He turned to the mirror suspiciously and started at his shoulder. It looked as though somebody was using a very narrow poker to burn a thin and long line down from the seal's edge to its centre. Tomoe remained intact, but that one pretty line resembled a lonely ray of sun and Sasuke turned to Hyuuga in a flash, hoping for an explanation. His eyes filled with red and sharingan began spinning in them.

Hiashi's misty eyes withstood Sasuke's burning glare and he walked up close to the youth, blocking the puzzled Sakura from his view. Sasuke looked up at Hiashi unwillingly. He forgot how tall this man was. Warm and tender fingers touched Sasuke's shoulder and he barely held back the quiver going up and down his back. Uchiha did not fear the man in front of him, but even his subconscious knew it should be weary of the Hyuuga fingers. Everyone knew what they were capable of in a close combat.

Sasuke stared at Hiashi with his red eyes. Long white finger traced lightly the newly emerged ray.

"If it hadn't been for Hinata's design," he said and Sasuke listened closely. "It would have been very difficult to calculate the limit of jutsu efficiency. No matter how much the concentration is reduced, the Hyuuga juinjutsu is still fatal once activated."

"What are you trying to say?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"Your seal isn't fully activated yet," Hiashi pulled back his fingers and barely visible blood-vessels seamed his cheeks as he glanced at Uchiha. "That is the reason why the sharingan still works. If I had activated the seal immediately, it would have literally boiled your blood."

"Then…" Sasuke lowered his arms; the sharingan red was slowly disappearing from his eyes.

"The seal will be activated gradually. Sharigan will be sealed completely once the last radius is burned into your skin," as Hiashi was saying this, Sasuke felt another needle brushing against his skin and another thin dark line appeared on his shoulder, stretching towards the centre of the seal. Hiashi looked Sasuke directly in the eye, as if he could read his mind. "You have twelve hours."

The time stopped. Sasuke heard the deafening silence only. Then it was slashed through by a tick-tack of a clock on Sakura's desk, though it sounded more like a crash of a thunder. He saw byakugan staring at him and he felt his guts roll over one after another. Sakura's folder landed crashing onto the desktop and Sasuke woke up from his weird trance.

He blinked breaking the eye contact with Hyuuga Hiashi and buckled up his ANBU vest as if he was protecting something. Still having Hyuuga in his peripheral vision, he headed towards the door.

"You've just discharged me, Sakura," he grumbled out over his shoulder and opened the door.

"What?" she blinked. "W-wait," she leaned against the table like an angry Tsunade. "You haven't…" she hushed noticing Hiashi raise his hand. The door closed. Sakura frowned and sighed eventually, looking down. "You know better what you're doing."

"I hope so," the head of the Hyuuga clan mumbled quietly.

--

He stood at the hospital gate with his eyes closed, trying to unfold the map in his head, because that was the only way to remember the way he had taken once. The problem was though that then his attention had been distracted by some particular things, so now he couldn't recreate precisely the same map or the same mood, when he really just hadn't given a shit about anything.

That place next to his ribs stung again and Sasuke opened his eyes. He suddenly became angry out of the blue. Uchiha felt being manipulated. As if Hyuuga had mentally ordered him to go somewhere and Sasuke exactly knew where that "somewhere" was. A gust of icy wind twirled around his naked arms and it basically made his wounds freeze, but Sasuke felt neither cold nor pain. He totally didn't care about goosebumps present all over his skin or his bruised lip. He was seething with anger, because he wanted to go where they expected him to go.

Uchiha clenched his fists, turned towards a completely different direction and disappeared from the hospital gate. He was ready to suffer the imaginary cold steel stab his heart. He was ready to suffer pain, cold and stark walls. He found remembrance and nightmares more acceptable than a simple fact any genjutsu user thought to be quite natural – and that was the fact that he could be manipulated by someone.

Sasuke's hand trembled fractionally, when he pushed the door of a big house in a dark and empty block. He was ready to breathe in dust, cold and damp, but cosy warmth assaulted his face. He could even smell food. Sharingan disappeared and his dark eyes stared at a silhouette holding a bowl of dough in an illuminated corridor.

The door closed slowly and Sasuke took off his shoes robotically, not taking his eyes off the figure with an apron. He cocked an eyebrow, expecting an explanation and a wave of pain pierced his brow – his eyebrow had been properly split.

"I-I thought you'd want t-to come back home once you were discharged," Hinata stuttered, squeezing the bowl to her chest. "I thought you'd be back later…" she was counting Uchiha's visible and invisible wounds alarmed, as her byakugan had been activated basically in a reflex action.

"Well," Sasuke sighed, eyeing Hyuuga's floury face. "Surprise," he shrugged and sank down to his knees, when eventually the fatigue took over. The day had been a little bit too long.

--

A warm and wet sponge slid slowly down the scratched back and Sasuke clenched his fists so that he wouldn't produce some inappropriate sound. It was more than surreal. It was like he'd entered an alternative world.

His home was clean, tidy and warm. Dinner awaited him on the table. And he was lying in a huge soaking tub full of hot steamy water. And it was all done by this fragile Hyuuga behind his back?

"Why?" he asked closing his eyes and wriggling his toes blissfully underwater.

"I feel indebted," Hinata said quietly, biting her lower lip. "You lost sharingan because of me," her soft fingers brushed over his newly acquired seal and she didn't notice his shoulders shudder.

"Not yet," he said. "Your father said I could still rejoice over it for twelve hours."

"Nine," she was tracing the circle of the seal with her forefinger. Quarter of it was seamed with thin black rays already.

"I was blacked out?"

"Yeah."

Sasuke sighed and submerged deep into the tub without a warning, totally disappearing under the water. Hinata pulled back quickly, but the ripples on the surface still managed to break through the rim of the tub and splashed her shirt. Light blue turned navy blue and her waist patterned with dark spots. Hinata twitched at her shirt waiting for the wet warmth on her body to become cold. She was going to put the sponge down and leave for the hallway to change. She had only an old cerise sweater left, the one which had been smudged with flour, but Hinata would only favour dry garment over wet one, no matter how smudged it was.

She was about to get up from the floor when Uchiha emerged from the tub face to her. The sponge was dropped onto clean tiles. His black hair was stuck to his forehead and it was getting into his eyes which had red light burning in them. Water was running down his body. The dim light of the bathroom reflected on him.

Hinata blinked twice, secretly wondering if she should activate the byakugan, but the logical part of her brain (which was still in control) clearly told her that even with byakugan activated she would still have no chances against Uchiha. Due to various reasons. She clenched her fists in her lap and looked down.

Sasuke angled his head right and gave a wry smile.

"Hn."

"What?" she couldn't take it anymore and looked up. His sharingan was gradually disappearing. Sasuke ran his hand over his wet hair. The dripping wet strands dishevelled in a weird pattern.

"I could've sworn you blush," he said, studying her pale face.

"It's not the first time I see you half-naked," she said firmly, determined to keep her balance to the end.

"And what if I stood up?" he asked airily, gripping the rim of the tub. Hinata gaped and her misty eyes stared in astonishment. Her cheeks were the first to turn pink, and then her forehead turned red like a blotting-paper dipped into an ink. Sasuke smirked. "Hentai."

Hinata didn't have to listen to all this. She shook her head and straightened her back, ready get up, but Sasuke reached out his hand and snatched her shoulder with intention to stop her. Hinata responded like any other Hyuuga would've responded once his or her personal space had been invaded. Byakugan was activated in a nanosecond and she pushed Uchiha's hand away, aiming her half-clenched fist at his chest.

Yet Sasuke wasn't a person who would make the same mistake twice. She was about to disrupt his chakra flow somewhere at his breastbone when he grabbed Hinata's wrist and pulled her at himself. Tired muscles squealed with tension and weariness made his head dizzy, but Hyuuga hit him with her whole upper body and he immediately felt part of the dripping water soak into her shirt. She had a sure hold of his forearms, glaring at him with her ghostly eyes, and he wanted raise his finger and trace every single blood-vessel seaming her cheeks. But he was clenching her wrist with one hand (her hand was till pulsing with whitish chakra) and the other one took a hold of her head and didn't let her pull back. His wet fingers got entangled in her long hair.

He was kneeled in the tub. She was kneeling on a hard floor. Neither found it comfortable, but in some convenient way both of them forgot it immediately. Hinata looked down eventually, trying not to breathe on his face.

"Perhaps you should dry off first," she said.

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To be continued…


	22. Chapter 22

**--22--**

Vocal chords produced a rusty sound. He frowned as something weird tickled his nose. And he couldn't recognize the scent as well. Cold and mild tongues crawled into his brain and enveloped every single coil, squeezing it rhythmically. Sasuke frowned and whined like a tired cat, squirming in his bed. He opened his eyes.

It was dark. His nose was stuck into something black as well. Sasuke rolled onto his back and tried to swallow his saliva, but his throat was so dry he felt razors slashing it. Eventually his eyes got used to the light coming from the windows and Uchiha recognized he was lying in his old living-room on the warm floor. The old heating system still worked. He pulled his hand from under the blanket and rubbed his numb neck. As his fingers gripped his left shoulder, Sasuke finally realized. It was morning.

He sat up suddenly and could barely keep himself straight on the furry blankets he was covered with – he fell into a terrible bout of dizziness and he almost threw up. His whole body felt numb and he couldn't tell whether it was because he'd been wounded during the mission or there was some other reason. High blood pressure rammed into his head. Trying to resist such reaction Sasuke growled quietly and hunched, lowering his head.

He heard a soft bustle behind his back. Sasuke raised his head slowly and turned around suspiciously, ready to assault his enemy any second now. But that was only the Hyuuga. She was napping stretched full-length on the floor and only her face was half-hidden in between the soft fur. Her hair was dishevelled all around and Sasuke realized perplexed that he'd mistaken that black-blue hair for his pillow. Uchiha wrapped himself tight into an old white haori and narrowed his eyes, taking into account everything that was at the head of his "bed" so to speak.

A tray with a jug of water and a couple of glasses was lying at Hinata's shin. A plate with neatly cut tomatoes, a bowl of rice, a plate of cold soup with dumplings and a few more plates with various side dishes were right next to it. Apparently, it had all been prepared for him, but Sasuke couldn't recall himself eating last night. His memory was like a mist and he remembered vaguely going from the bathroom to the warm living-room and then curling up on fluffy fur blankets (where did she get those?). Then Hinata mentioned something about dinner being ready, but once she left for the kitchen to bring the meal, Sasuke flopped deadbeat on the pillow and fell asleep at once.

She most probably had fallen asleep with her clothes still on while waiting for him to wake up. Or while she was discussing with her herself whether she should wake him or not. Sasuke, smirking wryly, crawled like a small child towards the tray at her leg and grabbed one piece of tomato. The edge of the vegetable had been dry and shrivelled already, but he could still see the juice glitter inside, so Sasuke hungrily gobbled it up, rubbing his numb neck with his free hand. His shoulder still felt like being traced with gentle needles, but he wanted to think neither of the sharingan, nor the seal.

His dry mouth gradually filled up with saliva and, in order to help his body deal with this task, Sasuke poured a whole glass of water from the jug, and drank it down slowly, washing away the taste of tomato and the morning breath. When he put the glass onto the tray and looked right, he saw Hinata sitting and rubbing her eye, watching him.

"Good morning," she croaked, repressing the yawn. Sasuke's guess was that she hadn't have too much of sleep. Half of her face was pink and seamed with unique thin lines from lying on the furry blankets. The hair on the left side of her head stuck out dishevelled and Sasuke suddenly wished he could smooth them down, but he just shook his head and instead of doing anything stupid with her hair, he poured another glass of water and offered it to Hyuuga offhandedly.

"Morning" he said.

"Thank you," Hinata took the glass, paying no attention that their fingers touched in process.

Sasuke turned away and stared at the wall, thinking that Hyuuga felt really cosy in his presence. It was clear she no longer treated him as a patient, but that concern he felt emanating from her, was somewhat abnormal. Uchiha realized that a perfect explanation could've been this sense of guilt she had mentioned of yesterday, but the problem was though, that now her posture and attitude said nothing of remorse or repentance. And that wall…

Uchiha narrowed his eyes. He shook his head and looked at the wall again. The image was somewhat weird. He closed his eyes and snatched at his head.

"Is something wrong?" he heard the glass being put on the tray and a light rustle of clothes. He looked up and saw Hyuuga kneeling in front of him, scanning his face with a look of worry in her eyes. The image of her face was perfect despite the slightly swollen eye-bags and dishevelled hair, but once Sasuke looked away the tiniest of details sort of… disappeared.

"I see things… rather wei—"

Sasuke didn't finish his sentence, because Hinata cupped his face into her hands and pulled him closer. His eyes widened in astonishment, but he was greeted by small veins seaming her pale cheeks and the byakugan in her eyes.

"What…" he could barely move his jaw with her palms on his face.

"I'm checking your retina, what does it look like?" she said sternly and Sasuke could barely hold back a remark that it looked more like a certain harassment to him. He kicked himself mentally for such stray thoughts. "Thought so," she sighed and, before he could get used to such position, she let go of him.

"Thought what?"

"Sharigan is gradually locking up and your eyes are accustoming themselves to… how should I put it," she scratched her head. "Regular operating conditions."

"Excuse me?" Sasuke cocked an eyebrow sceptically.

"You've developed a barely noticeable nearsightedness," although Uchiha thought he was a pro when it came to dealing with his own emotions, Hinata could see a sheer horror in his cold face. She angled her head like a matron educating a child with her arms akimbo. "Did you think that these black-outs, from before Sakura blocked your sight nerve, would leave no consequences at all?"

"When were you going to tell me?" Sasuke hissed through his clenched teeth.

"Oops," Hinata shrugged demonstratively. Sasuke narrowed his eyes menacingly.

"You're totally not afraid of me, are you?" he asked.

"Why should I be?"

"Well… I could like… kill you…"

Hinata looked up and eyed Uchiha as though he'd just fallen off a tree. What was more, that threat of his (if it was a threat in a first place) sounded ridiculous, because he finished his incoherent sentence in sotto voce.

We're not enemies, Hinata thought blinking, feeling no fear at all, and simply wondering at the weird behaviour of Uchiha. She couldn't really tell what he wanted to achieve by making such remarks. Naturally, Uchiha Sasuke was unpredictable, but he usually was a man of few words. On the other hand, it didn't seem as though he would enter predator mode and start throwing kunai any time soon. Weirdo. Hinata shrugged.

"There are worse things in life than death," she said standing up with the tray in hands – the cold food didn't taste good anyways.

And it was true, being an heir of the Hyuuga clan; Hinata didn't really care much about the important part of ninja's life – death. It wasn't so because she would've believed in the supreme protection of the clan, just… perhaps Uchiha Sasuke wasn't the only person so tired of everything.

"I could…" he uttered as if trying to come up with some horrible way out, which would frighten or impress her at the least. "Rape… you?" he blurted out.

The last word came out shaky, because he saw her smile. She was close to laughing out loud really. Hinata looked at the tray and, picking up the plate with tomatoes, she kneeled down and put it on the floor in front of him, as if it were a serving for a small puppy. She eyed him up down, once she stood up. Black dishevelled hair, unfastened white haori and the furry blankets all around him…

"I don't think I would resist much…" she shrugged and left the room.

Sasuke blinked and almost head-butted the floor. He was being ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. His bones ached and he was getting cramps all over. His nape tingled and if that wasn't enough, blood flushed into his head and now his face was almost as red as the sharingan.

"Are you alright?" he didn't register as she came back and curled up next to him. The misty Hyuuga eyes were full of worry. Sasuke growled inside, thinking he was still her patient. "You're all hot," she put her hand to his brow and Sasuke jumped back as if she could induce electricity.

"I'm fine," he said turning away quickly. "Just the seal is tingling a little," he said bitterly. "Will it always itch like that?" he scratched his left shoulder demonstratively, as if trying to rip off the top layer of his skin.

"Don't scratch… how old are you?" Hinata snatched his wrist and pulled it away from the tingling shoulder. Small pieces of skin remained underneath his fingernails. Hyuuga pushed the haori away from his shoulders and took a closer look at his seal. Sasuke sat all sour and silent and he wanted to weigh down his head, but then his nose would've propped against Hinata's shoulder.

"What a nightmare…" he grumbled quietly. Hinata pretended she didn't hear that.

"It itches, because the seal isn't fully locked yet," she traced a narrow part of the circle, which was still ray-less.

He pulled back from Hyuuga and looked at her with question marks in his eyes. He had so much to ask, so much to say, but he seemingly only now realized how close she was. He wanted to try and activate sharingan one more time, but his brain dimmed as if he was being pushed forward by somebody else and not his own will.

Hinata pulled her hand away from his shoulder and reached out for the haori collar, so she could pull the cloth back onto his shoulder, but Sasuke held her wrist and bit his lip, looking her straight in the eye.

It was like a high frequency beep, the one which was supposed to repel mosquitoes. As there was nothing but blackness on the screen and a long thin line was stretching through it. Totally dead, no pulse. Hinata could only hear that loud peep in her ears until eventually it was replaced by a heavy drumming and it took some time for to realize that it was the beating of her own heart. She looked at the marble face in front of her and eventually sighed giving in. No one ever said it was going to be easy anyways.

Uchiha was still trying to make his muscles move, when Hyuuga leaned forwards and kissed him. And he stopped thinking from that moment on. He just let her do whatever she wanted. Let himself to whatever he wanted. He didn't remember how he freed himself of his haori and how he rolled down the furry blankets with her, knocking over the plate with tomatoes. He didn't feel her nails scratch his back and he didn't feel his left shoulder tingle for the very last time, because everything drowned in her voice.

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To be continued…


	23. Epilogue

**Final Author's Note. Please read.**

I somehow sense a horde of readers armed with pitchforks and kunai coming, lol. Well, for one, I want to thank you all for reading, commenting and liking this story. Really, from the bottom of my heart. I mean, look at that, over 200 hundred reviews in just a month. This is crazy. THANK YOU. I was really glad to see that some of you noticed minor details which I put in with intention to hint one or the other feature or intention of this character or the other. I sometimes thought I was being too abstract or ambiguous, but you guys noticed it, and yay. Success =) I could explain lots of things on my own, but then there would be no secret remaining, right? I love it when reader forms his own opinion and sometimes allows me to look at my own writing from a different point of view which is sometimes a lot more promising and interesting than my own.

Also, thanks for pinpointing my flaws and letting me improve the story and myself. I haven't written in English for a while (apart from various political and academic stuff, God help me), so this fic also helped me get back in shape. It's not perfect, but I like it so much, because it's the most reasonable thing I've ever written, and to be honest, I don't want it to be perfect. It would be too boring then. I guess it felt weird at times, because I usually just write and don't think. Anyone has ever seen _Finding Forrester_ with Sean Connery? I'm just like that, lol. Just write, don't think. And I show my writings to others ONLY if I like them myself. So I guess, I'm more of an "enclosed" writer so to speak, who writes for herself. I'm just glad that there are so many people who actually enjoy this crazy twisted world of mine… :)

As far as crazy twisted and weird goes… I guess I should say something about weird behaviour of Hinata in chapter 11 and further on. Hmm. Let's just say she's been on a weird phase of hornyness then xD. I don't know how else to explain it. A weird type of PMS? Wakaranai. I just felt like writing like this. It seemed plausible.

And this is where the pitchforks and kunai come into picture, because this chapter is basically as long as my author's comment. Aahahaha. *runs away* This epilogue actually raises more questions than answers them, so I guess I'm leaving you all with lots of food for thought. And it makes me come over to another topic. Sequel? I don't think so. At least not a solid fic with lots of chapters. Ever since I've finished writing this, I was thinking of occasional one-shots from random episodes of their life. So you just need to leave this story in your story alert list for these one-shots, which I will definitely post sometime in the future. Though the updates won't be as frequent as it's been so far… I haven't written anything yet, it's still in my mind. :) And also, posting one-shots on the same fic would allow me to comment on your reviews and answer your questions as such…

Ah… I just hope you guys had just as interesting ride this month as I did. I'll see you sometime later~ ^^ Toodles. =3

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**Epilogue**

"I'm hungry," a ten-year-old boy complained, sitting on a roof ledge next to a water-tower. His teammate sitting near him said nothing. She just looked up at the azure sky. The sun had clearly moved a lot along the sphere ever since Team 15 gathered at the designated point early in the morning in order to meet their new team leader. It began sizzling and the twelve-year-old girl pulled out a thin string from her light blue shirt pocket, so she could tie her elbow-long black hair into a ponytail. The heat manifested the summer coming to Konoha.

"Five more minutes and we're going home, I swear," the third member of the team grumbled, standing on the ledge of the roof, a bit farther from the other two children.

"We've been told the teacher's gonna be late," the long-haired girl said calmly, not even bothering to look at the grumpy in black. "And we can't go home, because we still need to take the junior from the academy.

The girl in black flopped on the roof ledge. She rammed her elbows crossly into her knees and propped her face onto her palms humping. Her two short and black pigtails barely reached her shoulders.

The golden-haired boy felt slightly ill at ease, confined in between two weird girls. They both had identical faces with the same black bottomless eyes and pale skin, but their clothes and even hairstyles were totally different. The ten-year-old had no idea why after graduating the Konoha academy two years earlier than his peers (he'd been quickly promoted because of exceptionally good chakra control, diligence and unbelievable stamina), he found himself in the same team with the two young kunoichi. Wasn't there usually only one girl per team? And despite the fact that he'd known them ever since he was born, so to speak, he still found them intimidating at times. And annoying.

A lion roar came from the boy's stomach and he hugged himself embarrassed. The girl next to him gave a lenient smile and, taking her small bag off her shoulders, she pulled out a small bento box.

"You need to eat your breakfast, Soba-kun," she said and put the box onto the boy's lap.

"I did, but that was ages ago… Yuuki nee-chan," Soba grinned, his blue eyes shining. "I love you," he opened the box and saw it full of the high quality home made food. "Itadakimaaaaaaaasu~," and he dug in.

The children didn't talk much. It was a weird team. There was only the occasional munching of ravenous Soba disturbing the silence. They heard the ruckus of Konoha streets from down below. People yelled and shouted. The air was gradually boiling and threatened to convert every single soul into a lazy bum.

"Argh!" the girl in black exclaimed, unable to take it anymore. She jumped up and turned to her teammates, clenching her right fist. Her eyes burned red. "If he's not showing up this instance, I'll…"

"You'll what, Hikari?" a cold and calm voice rang behind children's backs and they all turned around at once. Soba still had a mouthful of rice; a few white grains were stuck to his lips.

A tall shinobi in ANBU uniform was standing on the roof. His face was hidden behind the mask, but Hikari narrowed her eyes suspiciously, noticing the long dark brown hair blowing in the wind.

"I have an excuse for being late," he said and took off the mask. Soba choked with a bite of beef. If that guy was going to be their sensei, they were doomed.

"Uncle Neji?!" the girls exclaimed stupefied.

Hyuuga Neji eyed the three dumbfounded children and realized why he was assigned to be a sensei of precisely this team. The hyperactive Uzumaki spawn and the Uchiha twins with a perfectly spinning sharingan each. Great.

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FIN~


	24. Aftermath: Habit 1

**A word from frustrated author:**

After the current events in the manga I _seriously_ considered not writing SasuHina anymore. I was sort of gobsmacked. The problem with me and fan-fics is that I'm more into writing my original stuff and with fan-fics it's harder. I like to be consistent. In terms of original plot and what not. Yet, keeping in mind what Kishimoto-sensei has been doing lately, I suppose it's rather impossible ^^;;

But I guess I grew to like my characters too much to leave everything like that. In the end, a fan-fic is a whole new world on itself and it can function separately from the manga. That I have seen countless of times by browsing various AU fics (whoah, don't even let me get started on these xD). So here it comes, the first of the one-shots which are very likely to grow into two-shots, three-shots and what not. I can't promise that they all will be posted in chronological order. And I can't promise about keeping everyone in character anymore. I don't know. Kishi-san just killed me (although plot-wise the move in the manga was pretty smart *shrug*). Also, I don't know how frequent the updates will be, because I've been feeling rather cranky lately and I first update the original thread of this fic in my own language, so… please be patient with me. And please enjoy~! I eat comments instead of breakfast~! ^O^

*nomnomnomnomnom*

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**Aftermath: Habit (1)**

She leaned against the rail and crossed her arms. Heavy heartbeat reverberated through her wrists and she could feel it right up to her fingertips. A light breeze danced around, hiding her eyes behind the long black hair, but Hinata tucked stray strands behind her ear immediately, thinking of the best way to put whatever she had to say.

The weird thing was she had no fear. Hinata had only one reason for that – dysfunctional hormone balance. Definitely. Or she was simply out of her mind. How could one be _not_ afraid of such a thing? Especially as she had no foundation-stone beneath her feet. She had no clue what she was supposed to do, but she totally had no fear. Perhaps she had been thinking about it subconsciously for so long that eventually she accepted everything naturally. Though the problem was that she'd been procrastinating for so long that there was nowhere to retreat now. Even if she'd had any doubts before, it was too late now.

She sighed and, releasing the rail, she sat down onto the last step in front of veranda, stretching her pale legs in front of the sun. She was wearing a light blue dress. She sort of came to like dresses lately. It would make certain people turn around whenever she walked down a street. Hinata wouldn't notice that, because she was in a constant state of daydreaming. But perhaps it was a good thing, since after a while some of those gawks would mysteriously disappear.

And then they would reappear totally shell-shocked and having no clue what the hell happened to them, although they were sure of one thing – don't gloat over Hyuuga Hinata and you'll be safe. If only Hinata had known of this, she would have certainly thought that it was all Neji's doing. Yet, Neji wasn't the only one take taking care of the poor lads.

Hinata looked up at the blue sky. Light wide clouds floated up there. Part of the sphere was blocked by shady trees and eaves of the roof. The spring was in a full bloom. Bees were humming around pink and white blooms of apple and cherry trees. It was only morning, but the calm humming of the bees made Hinata's eyes close. The eyelids became heavy. She weighed down her head.

She was going to meet Kiba and Shino after the lunch but the moment she would think of the meeting, her stomach would curl in a funny manner. She was going to leave the team. At least temporarily. She hadn't trained with them for a while, but everything had to be explained sometime around anyways.

"I'm getting used to this, and I'm really bad at breaking my habits, you know," she heard a lazy voice.

Hinata flinched, waking up from her daydream, and looked up slowly. Part of his silhouette was drowned in the shadows, because sun was shining behind his back, but she could recognize that ANBU uniform anywhere. Two wakizashi swords hung on his waist; two katanas were crossed on his back. A long white silk scarf* covered his shoulders, ends of it hung right down to his thighs. She couldn't understand really how he was able to fight properly with that scarf on, but she had to admit that this type of accessory suited him pretty well. No matter how unpractical it was.

On the other hand it also meant he reckoned himself to be powerful enough to avoid short-range fight, during which the scarf would get in a way. Well, whether it was arrogance or not, in the past few months he did gain a reputation of a warrior much fiercer than he was considered to be all his life.

Sasuke took off the ANBU mask painted in red and left it lie askew on his head. Flattened black hair tried to get out of this prison with all its might.

She couldn't really tell whether it was because of that lop-sided mask or he angled his head, but exactly that moment, even despite his stone-cold face, he looked rather… cute.

Hinata looked down suddenly. She definitely wasn't scared, but lately whenever she was in his presence she found herself unable to talk. She punched herself mentally in the head. You're not fifteen anymore, she said. Stop that.

"Come in, since you've come already," Sasuke said and walked by her, entering the house.

Hinata stood up immediately, grabbed the paper bag full of food products, which had been lying next to the rail, and minced after him into the dark hall of the main Uchiha building. There were not only tomatoes in the bag. There was actually enough food to feed one person for a whole week. She came to realize a long time ago that Sasuke didn't care about his nutrition at all. He never dined at home. He never bothered to buy anything and make something. Whether he was a lazy bum or he simply didn't know how to, she didn't know that. But Hinata couldn't bear seeing him eat nothing but Ichiraku ramen. Therefore sometimes, as he would be back from his missions and if she managed to get out of her manor unnoticed, she would come and make him something…

Hell with sometimes. Think always. It was on the verge of becoming a habit.

She passed by the helter-skelter bundled swords and forearm protectors on the floor. The mission must've been really boring if he treated his valued weapons like that. He was OK with only one katana before, but eventually Sasuke acquired a whole set of long katanas and shorter wakizashi, and it really seemed like he'd grown together with his swords, especially during fight. As if the weapons would've been his bones or some other part of his body. The swords obeyed him better than the bones had ever obeyed Kimimaro back in the days.

The rumour that Uchiha had Sharingan no more had spread fast. The fact that he'd joined ANBU had spread even faster. Well, naturally the identities of ANBU warriors were supposed to be kept secret, but anyone could recognize anywhere that black duck butt of a hair. And Sasuke wasn't too eager of wearing that mask on all the time as well. He would usually keep it slanted on his head like some sort of accessory. He had even had his ANBU uniform modified according to his own preferences, as if he'd been some special one-man squad. And even if his missions had nothing to do with ANBU he would still wear that uniform, adorned with the silk scarf and eventually his close-range combat skills would scare his opponents to death.

_Darn, that's Uchiha_, some scout would say.

_So what?_ Someone would reply. _He doesn't have sharingan anymore._

_So what? Get your brain checked, it's Uchiha Sasuke. I'm outta here…_

Or something like that. He didn't gain such reputation for nothing. Sasuke trained long and hard every single day, learning new ninjutsu techniques, trying to fill in the gaps which appeared after the sharingan was gone. Besides, sharingan wasn't the only medium enabling ninja to use genjutsu. And Sasuke was a natural genjutsu user. Therefore he found other ways to leave his opponents dizzy and lost in their own illusions.

Hinata promised herself mentally to pick up those swords and protectors later and… well, keeping in mind that he stored all of his uniforms and weapons in his bedroom, then… Hinata gripped the food bag tightly; on the other hand, let him take care of the mess himself.

As she entered the kitchen, there was no sign of the landlord, but she could feel perfectly his presence somewhere nearby. Yet she decided to pay no attention to that. She thought she shouldn't let him unbalance her (yet again), so Hinata put the bag onto the counter and began pulling out the products. The kitchen was full of light, furnished with old but well preserved furniture. Some things were newly painted, some things were varnished over. Perhaps one would've relived certain nightmares once again, recalling the past events of this house, yet somehow lately this oppressiveness seemed to be evaporating away. And to be honest, Hinata didn't feel it much really. She was too preoccupied with other stuff.

She was about to put the last tomato on the polished counter, when something hard leaned onto her nape. Her hand froze in mid-air. A calm sigh manifested that hardness to be Sasuke's forehead. Then she felt his long fingers on her hips. Fingers turned into hands, and then the hands turned into arms embracing her, and his head perched onto her shoulder quite comfortably. He sort of glued himself to her. Hinata heard him take a deep breath.

"I shall start charging you for that," she said.

"You took the sharingan away from me," he grumbled innocently next to her left ear. "The least you can do in return is stay still."

"You won't be able to use the same excuse forever, you know," she put the tomato next to the other red vegetables slowly.

He froze for a second, sensing something out of the loop. Hinata bit her lip and, still being held by his arms; she put the tomatoes into the sink and turned the tap on. Sasuke raised his head.

"What's wrong?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," she said quietly. "How did your mission go?"

Sasuke frowned and let her go. Someone was trying to change the subject and he didn't like it at all. He clearly had no wish to play charades after dreadfully uneventful mission. Therefore, he walked around the rectangular kitchen installation which accommodated cupboards, sink, cooker, and stood right in front of her. Sasuke propped against the counter.

"Terrible," he grumbled, keeping his eyes on her. "They issued F.O.S.** once they saw me. Hinata, what's wrong?" he repeated insistently, and turned the tap off.

She weighed down her head, leaving the half-washed tomatoes in the sink. He had to be told sooner or later anyways.

"Well, I am… er… sort of ah… mmm…" she stuttered playing with her forefingers.

"Well, you are er sort of ah mmm, what?" Sasuke mimicked her lightly.

She gave a defeated sigh and looked up at him.

"Pregnant."

His knuckles gripping the counter turned white. He sort of froze and it was impossible to read anything from his face. Unable to perceive what she was supposed to expect and feeling the black eyes boring right through her, Hinata turned as white as a sheet.

"Just don't barf again, by all means," he blurted out.

"I don't barf anymore," Hinata bit her lip.

His eyes widened fractionally.

"You're that far in?"

Unable to withstand his glance, Hinata turned the tap on again and chose to wash lettuce this time. Sasuke stared at her for awhile, thinking feverishly. It was basically possible to see a vein throbbing in his temple. Eventually he sighed, weighed down his head and pulled back from the counter.

"Oh well…" he said looking up and striding out of the kitchen decisively after a second.

"Where are you…?" Hinata asked, trying to resist the fear. Well, she clearly didn't expect much, but if he were to leave just like that…

"Shower," he halted in the doorway. "I need to clean up first, I can't go and see the old man in such state," he motioned at his dusty uniform and ruffled his dishevelled hair.

"What old man?" Hinata frowned.

"Your father, who else…"

Numb fingers couldn't get a hold of the slippery lettuce-head. It slipped from her hands and rolled down the floor. Hinata's jaw dropped.

"I don't…" she breathed and kneeled down suddenly, trying to catch the unruly lettuce. Snatching the head she jumped up all flushed. "I don't… I mean…" she threw the lettuce back into the sink and turned the tap off. "It's not… that is… if I… I just wanted you… well… to know. That fact that I… it doesn't mean that you… well…"

"You needed to sign up for rhetoric class, Hinata. Honestly," Sasuke couldn't help but smirk wryly. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned upon the door frame.

"Not funny," she walked closer.

"I'm not trying to be funny. Listen," he looked down, searching for the right words to say. "I might be a total asshole, but I still have the conscience to do what I'm supposed to. You shouldn't be so surprised."

"But I don't want to… you'd be forced to," she stepped up close to him. "I don't need that…"

"Maybe I do?" he suddenly looked up and stared right into her eyes.

Hinata swallowed hard. She felt she could shatter him to pieces with one single word, but she couldn't give him vain hopes. It didn't look fair at all. He wasn't supposed to be chained like that.

"Sasuke, I… I don't know," she said quietly yet firmly. "I don't know if sharingan had been locked already or not. I didn't see. I can't…"

"No matter!" he exclaimed and Hinata flinched. "There'll be time to think of this, but…" he took one step forward, grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her close to him. "If you think that I'll leave you with that old man and let your crazy family use you further on… you need to get your brain checked, ok?"

Hinata blinked rapidly. His face was way too close.

"Ma-my family is not crazy," she contradicted nonplussed.

"People who can see through clothes are definitely kinky," Sasuke declared in cold blood.

Hinata blinked again. And she snorted unable to control herself. Sasuke smirked.

"Give me a tomato, woman. I have a new mission to prepare to."

"One tomato will be enough for you to recharge?" Hinata cocked an eyebrow incredulously.

"No, but if he pisses me off, I'll be able to pitch it at your old man."

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* think Kuchiki Byakuya of Bleach xD

** Flee On Sight

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To be continued...

(some time around)


	25. Aftermath: Habit 2

I'm so sorry for the late update. I was ill T.T

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**Aftermath: Habit (2)**

Barely visible vapour wafted upwards. It was silent in the room. Sun light penetrated inside through a thin screen and as it filtered through the rice fibre sieve, it coloured the room in a warm and cosy tint. Yet, the only warm and cosy thing in this room was the atmosphere itself. Well, perhaps the steamy tea as well.

A bird chirped outside, but two men inside did not stir a muscle, staring at the floor. They were sitting on tatami with their legs crossed, one in front of the other. They did not move and it seemed that only their auras fought for space in the room. They were figuratively separated by a wall of tea tray, set in the middle of the room.

Eventually Hyuuga Hiashi reached out his hand and took one steamy cup. This motion of his sort of switched on the green light, and Sasuke also reached out his hand, gripping a cup full of hot transparent liquid. As he put the refined porcelain to his lips, Sasuke didn't take his eyes off the Hyuuga leader, whose face did not betray any thoughts. Not a muscle stirred. Hyuuga sipped the tea with his eyes closed and one would've thought there was nothing to be aware of, but Sasuke knew all too well that even closed eyes of byakugan were not harmless.

He rested his left hand onto his thigh, trying to project an image of a relaxed person, yet of one who could not be taken lightly. He had a sleeve of his black and thin Uchiha sweater (naturally, with the fan on his back) slightly pulled upwards, and it tightened around his forearm. On his way to the Hyuuga block he had thought over all the arguments possible and he even considered the desperate measures he would have to take up if Hyuuga Hiashi needed to be driven into a dead-end. Yet he hoped there would be no need to use these extremities. Despite the reputation, Sasuke had a hunch that Hiashi was a manageable and logical man. Supposing that, one picks up correct arguments to convince him. And if all the assumptions from before aren't false, of course.

"To whom am I indebted for such unexpected visit?" Hiashi asked, putting the cup in front of him. Not even a slightest clang came. Sasuke cocked his eyebrows mentally (as he did not really dare to do it for real, he didn't want to try that man's patience, it was a lot more sensible to probe him little by little). One could've thought that Hiashi was mocking him. Isn't it your own fault, you asshole, Sasuke thought.

"I think you are perfectly aware of all the reasons present," Sasuke didn't even bother to look up at him. He pretended to be highly interested in his tea cup.

"Which means that you have properly used the time left."

A part of Sasuke began pumping blood so violently that he suddenly wished he could punch Hyuuga Hiashi in the face. Though not too hard.

"I cannot guarantee that," he put the teacup onto the tray and looked up at Hiashi. His face was as cold as marble, but Sasuke had no doubt that there was a storm raging behind that mask. Serves you right, Uchiha thought.

"Then I do not really understand what you expect of me."

"What are you trying to say," Sasuke put on an emotionless mask, wondering at the old man's insolence. He realized horrified that some time ago he used to be exactly the same Mr I-know-what's-right-and-we're-doing-it-my-way.

"I am trying to say that until the final result is evident, we shall take care of everything," Hiashi said decisively and Sasuke could suddenly see a cold and horrible lab full of the ugliest gadgets you could possibly imagine. His heart began beating even faster.

"Pardon me for being so straightforward," Sasuke leaned forwards and he set his dark eyes right onto Hiashi's face. "But if you were going to use your daughter as a brood mare, you should've at least found out that the Uchiha blood is always dominant."

As he was a master is disguising his own emotions, Sasuke immediately understood that once he said that Hiashi had to muster all of his remaining will, so that he wouldn't punch Sasuke here and now and break his neck. Sasuke had to pull himself together too. So that he wouldn't smirk.

"You have a high level of insolence, Uchiha," Hiashi's calm voice enveloped him like icy tongues. Sasuke sighed and straightened himself, putting his hands onto his knees, resolving to blow here and now; as he realized that there would be no other better opportunity, because Hyuuga's defence was invincible.

"Hiashi-san, let us be honest," he uttered in a voice of a skilled negotiator. "Ever since the Academy days we have all seen how "useful" Hinata is to you. And how much you "value" her as the Hyuuga heir. So it's no surprise you've been hoping to benefit from her this way at least. I must admit the plan isn't so bad – add sharingan to your collection. And if it does fall through in the end, you'd have another positive Hyuuga, right?" Hiashi said nothing; he just listened while Sasuke was reading him as an open book. "Yet not all aspects were considered to the fullest. It would be so much easier if people were hollow like dolls," Sasuke glanced at Hiashi and the way his dark eyebrows knotted one could've thought he would start throwing kunai any second now. "If your hypothesis is correct and your gate is closed, I'm coming over, because the brat is mine. If everything is locked and impossible to reach I have a feeling you're giving the brat over to me, but I'm coming over nonetheless, because the mother is mine too."

"Your point being?" Hiashi narrowed his eyes.

"All I need is the person. Not the title," Sasuke declared.

Hiashi sat straight, staring at the young man in front of him. It was hard to believe that Uchiha Sasuke had actually come here already having a particular vision in his mind and he actually was proposing to compromise. He proposed an agreement. That damn bastard clearly realized the fears Hiashi had and how it could affect the whole Hyuuga clan. He offered to push the main worry off Hiashi's shoulders. To choose the lesser evil of the two. But even so Hiashi could hardly deal with it.

"Or?" he asked.

"Or the Hyuuga hierarchy shall see a drastic change," Sasuke leaned even closer keeping his eyes on Hiashi. "Hinata's still the heir, isn't she?"

If that moment Hyuuga Hiashi had been omnipotent, he would have smitten Sasuke with a lightning or swept him off the face of the planet. In one tiny second of weakness he really considered breaking Uchiha's neck there and now, which would have easily closed this case, yet the problem was that:

* he was rather hard to kill; and

* he had Uzumaki Naruto behind his back, a most definite future hokage of the village, who would've unleashed the hell onto the Hyuuga clan, had something happened to his precious friend.

"So?" Sasuke asked in an emotionless voice. The anger had evaporated as suddenly as it had appeared.

Hell with him, Hiashi thought, reaching for the teacup calmly.

* * *

She told them everything. Well, figuratively speaking. More than she could've said to any of her "friends", but less that she would've told Neji. That is, she would if she weren't scared shitless.

She was sitting on the stairs in front of Ichiraku Ramen, hugging her knees and staring at the pavement and various feet treading onto it. Yet her eyes saw nothing. Akamaru was lying at her feet, stretched at full-length and his master was squatting at her left, having no words to say.

Shino was standing propped against the beam right next to the entrance to the ramen shop, with his arms crossed and half of his face hidden behind the high collar of his jacket. Hinata could swear he was staring right at her, but it would've been hard to prove, because Shino was always hiding behind his huge collar and dark shades.

The warm weather made him change his wardrobe and the grey jacket was tailored out of thin material and it was short-sleeved, but the collar still remained. And even though Hinata could feel a vapour coming from him (which meant that Shino was basically steaming inside), he wasn't bothering her as much as Kiba.

That fang was squatting next to her on the second step and was staring at her with his eyes narrowed, rubbing his chin.

"Hnnn…" he hemmed with a rising intonation.

That was a third time already. That was the only sound he produced in the past five minutes. The giant dog at Hinata's feet yawned. Hinata leaned down and scratched Akamaru's ear. People were running to and fro in the street while Team 8 waited in silence. Kiba breathed in to hem again.

"Kiba, that's enough," Shino erupted eventually. "Just say it!" a vein popped on his temple.

Hinata smiled fractionally as Kiba frowned, cornered by an unexpected Shino's remark. He pouted and turned away from Hinata, eventually sitting down properly and putting his feet onto the ground. He hunched and, propping his elbow onto his knee, he put his chin into his palm.

"Well, I knew you were a pervert, but as to that extent…"

WHAM!

"Argh!" Kiba crouched snatching at his head, where Shino's fist had just landed. Aburame stood at his side, ready to smack once more if need be. "What for?!" Kiba exclaimed teary-eyed.

"For incompetence," Shino explained calmly, leaning against another beam.

Kiba sighed and looked down, suddenly very serious. He unconsciously began ruffling Akamaru's fur.

"But out of so many people… Uchiha," he mumbled.

"If one would think logically, it's not such a bad option at all," Shino said.

"Traitor," Kiba grumbled.

Hinata suppressed a smile. They really cared about her and they didn't want her to leave the team for good. Shino and Kiba even declared that they would not function as Team 8, until Hinata is back, and she had a terrible pang in her stomach, because somewhere deep inside she was sure she wouldn't be back for a very long time. Unless of course a miracle would manifest itself and it would be really easy to take care of the child.

Her brain was struck by electricity. The child. She could never get used to even think of that. She would have begun spazzing if it weren't for her calm nature, so it was no surprise it took a few helpings of cinnamon rolls for her to actually tell everything to her closest friends. Good thing Kiba always carried a box or two of her favourite food just in case they had to squeeze some important info out of her.

Suddenly Shino totally disappeared behind his collar.

"Speaking of the devil…"

Hinata and Kiba looked up at Shino and then turned towards the direction their teammate was looking at. And Hinata's stomach churned even more. It was really Sasuke over there, a few crossroads away. He was walking decisively towards them, and it seemed he completely blanked the people around him, who actually were moving out of his way.

His eyes were focused on one individual only and Hinata felt as if she had been hit with a wet mop, as it was the first time she saw him like this. Though one couldn't claim he was being arrogant. To be honest, he more likely resembled an invisible man or a shadow, which would have been left unnoticed if it wasn't for the nonchalant grace in his motions and the black clothes stuck to his body. That dark figure was certainly distinctive amidst the background of a bright, playful and colourful spring.

Kiba and Shino tensed noticeably, although they did try to pretend they did not care. When she could hear his footsteps among the ruckus of the day, even Akamaru looked up to check out the newcomer, and Hinata was about to hold back the dog to stop him from biting, but it turned out to be different from she had expected.

Sasuke halted right in front of them and gave Shino and Kiba a passing glance. Usually such kind of a glance would have meant an invitation for a fight, but it was clear Sasuke had no intentions to scuffle with Kiba and Shino. Naturally, Kiba would've had no problem, if Akamaru had nibbled at Sasuke's shin, but the dog just sniffed Sasuke's shoe lazily without a hint of interest and put his head down onto his paws again.

"Traitor," Hinata could swear she heard Kiba mumble silently.

Her shoulders quivered with a suppressed laugh and she looked up only to see a dark glance piercing right through her. And she suddenly realized he was alive. Well, ALIVE. Conversation with her friends totally banished other issues from her head, while Sasuke had actually gone and met her father. And he came out unharmed. Not a single scratch on him. No stupor or hidden pain which could be betrayed by his posture.

Then suddenly his face softened by 0.01% and he reached out his right hand. Right at her. Hinata eyed his elegant palm equipped with long and strong fingers and then looked up at him again, not completely sure of what was going on here.

"It's alright," he said although it seemed his lips didn't move at all. Hinata was so puzzled she thought she heard that voice in her head instead. She glanced at her teammates timidly, but Kiba didn't even bother to look at her, he just pushed her with his shoulder gently, and Hinata gave Sasuke her left hand, feeling totally lightheaded.

Perhaps it was in his fingers. Perhaps her skin had some weird reaction to his fingertips. It was just a simple holding hands. Yet warmth spread across her body, although she couldn't quite pinpoint or name it. Sasuke stood as a statue of ice. He looked colder than the coldest winter possible, but something in those fingers gripping her hand… Warmth. It was all one could feel. All kinds of warmth. Whatever there could be. Not only physical.

He pulled her up slightly, helping her to get up, and once Hinata regained her balanced she tried to pull her hand out of his grip, but Sasuke didn't let her go. She glanced at their holding hands, then up at him, but the young man in front of her didn't bother to explain anything. He just tightened his grip around her hand and took her along with him.

Hinata felt as if she'd been presented under a microscope lens. As if everybody was watching her. Though, come to think of it, it was so. No one could ignore the only Uchiha alive and the Hyuuga heir holding hands. Separately they clearly did not raise any suspicion. Well, perhaps a person or two would still gossip about Sasuke as he would pass by, but now it resembled an explosion. As if a celebrity, who had been extremely secretive about his personal life up to now, had showed up in a crowd. And now, as they emerged into the daylight, Hinata really thought that any second now a bloodsucker harpy would jump out of the next corner and tear her to shreds.

She tried to pull her hand out once more, but Sasuke just tightened his grip. Hinata looked around alarmed, feeling hawk-eyed looks piercing her from everywhere.

"People are watching" she whispered.

"Let'em watch," he said nonchalantly.

Hinata stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at him in astonishment.

"Aren't you ashamed?" she asked. Sasuke frowned and his eyes were clearly saying: "are you out of your mind?"

"Why should I be?" he shrugged.

Hinata blinked rapidly. People were running to and fro, but the background blurred into one vague glob, and the only vivid thing left was that weird person in front of her. Eventually she gave a faint smile and propped her free arm against his shoulder, letting him lead her wherever he wished. But he came to halt after a few more steps.

"You want it now or later?" he asked looking down at her. Hinata bit the inside of her cheek, trying to grasp what on earth he was talking about, yet, instead of asking a question, she let her thoughts run free. And the result of that was visible on her face, because the pale skin turned red in an instant. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Hentai. There's only one thing on your mind," he smirked, feeling unexpectedly pleased. "You want to pack your stuff now or later?"

"Eh?" Hinata turned even redder (if that was possible), as he teased her. "Stuff?" her eyes widened suddenly. "You mean…?"

"I left your father's alive," he gave another nonchalant shrug. "I guess, that means… yes?"

Hinata let go of his arm and clamped her mouth shut, as if preventing some abrupt scream from escaping her throat. Then she suddenly snatched him at his sweater, pulled him closer and kissed him. Sasuke's hair like totally stood on end (not in 75, but in 90 degrees).

"People are watching," he mumbled, trying to avoid her lips.

"Let them watch."

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To be continued...

(some time around. again.)


	26. Aftermath: H for

**Author's note:** Hello, hello. Um, Happy Easter, if you guys celebrate it ^_^. This one-shot is finally a real one-shot, and even its size is one-shot'ish. Heh heh. I have more of these random scenes in my head, so I hope this is not the end of SasuHina one-shots =D Enjoy!

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**Aftermath: H for ****Hyuuga (Hentai?)  
**

It had been a while since this house had been so noisy. The barking dog alone could've exorcised all the bad spirits around. One could only marvel at the will power of the landlord as he managed to stand it all. Well, at least Hinata was marvelling. She was expecting a blast any second now. Once Sasuke would be too pissed to deal with all the whims and buzz around.

Yet she decided to pay no attention to it at least for a while. Hinata tightened her white kerchief, hiding her hair, rolled up her sleeves and opened the window with one big swing. Dim and dusty room was flooded with sunlight which dazzled Kiba and he dropped the end of the table he was carrying. One firm and black table-leg hit the floor, totally scratching the baseboards. Akamaru began whirling around Kiba, the table and Shino standing at the other end, barking terribly. Hinata turned around with intention to evaluate the damage Kiba had caused, but her stomach curled, as she saw Sasuke standing at the doorstep with his eyebrow cocked and his arms crossed.

Kiba saw him too. And he didn't feel too happy about it.

"I'll pay," he said, meaning the ruined floor.

"Just carry it out," Shino urged him, pushing the table towards Kiba and ruining the baseboard even more.

Them both left the room quickly after a slight wobble to the left and to the right. Akamaru ran after them with a loud bark. Hinata bit her lip and gave Sasuke a contemplative glance. The sunlight coming from the window outlined her silhouette in gold and if she were standing in profile, one could've clearly seen her condition. As she had first left the Uchiha estate in a blouse with raised waistline, there had been many jaws dropped literally to the ground. Now people were sort of used to that idea and if there were any gossip going around, it was usually about how pretty Hyuuga Hinata looked.

And she was really beautiful. The usually pale skin had a healthy rosy tint, her hair looked thicker and her lips looked redder. Sakura would've explained that it was due to the hormones which began producing faster during the pregnancy, but old hags tattled it was all Uchiha Sasuke's doing. In one way or the other.

"What?" Sasuke asked as Hinata put her hands on her waist and angled her head, trying to figure out this individual in front of her, although she knew well enough that her efforts were all in vain.

"You're somewhat… too calm," she glared straight at the ruined floor.

"No big deal," he shrugged and his voice betrayed nothing cunning. "I have a mission with them the day after tomorrow…"

Hinata gasped. Her eyes were full of terror. Sasuke sighed.

"I'm not gonna do anything to them, don't worry," he moved away from the door and walked closer to the window, so he could take off the old curtains. This whole room was supposed to be washed and cleaned to the smallest corner; otherwise the child would've had asthma just by being in here. "I had to choose," he continued reaching out his hand and snatching the cornice without any difficulty. "Those two or your crazy cousin."

"What's wrong with my cousin?" Hinata pouted her lower lip, taking the end of the curtain he had already unlinked and beginning to fold it slowly.

"One Hyuuga is enough for me," Sasuke finished detaching the curtain from the cornice and gave Hinata the other end of it. "You see things through. Sometimes…" he hesitated, thinking of a better way to put it. "I feel naked."

Hinata bit her lip and after folding the curtain she put the material onto the floor. It needed to be washed anyways. Then she regretted she had bent down to the floor, because it wasn't easy to stand up. She gripped at her back and gave a tired sigh. Sasuke shook his head in disapproval and came closer.

"We can't see through clothes," Hinata reached out her hand stopping him. Sasuke ran his tongue over his upper teeth.

"Oh yeah?" he said incredulously. "You see through walls, but not through clothes?"

"Even if we do see through clothes," Hinata began babbling. "Byakugan distorts the image so much that it's hard to tell the true essence of things just as they are. We can only tell the clear outline, shape…" her neck blushed. "And size…"

He would've thought nothing of it, if only Hinata hadn't been avoiding his eyes so much. Yet even her dark fringe couldn't hide her red forehead. Sasuke suddenly grinned like hyena and walked right next to her, raising her chin with his forefinger.

"Hentai," he said calmly. "What do they feed you over there, if you grow up into such perverts? Do all of you spy on people when they don't even have a clue about it?"

Hinata began playing with her fingers. If it wasn't for the noise coming from the corridor right on time, she would've died of embarrassment. Now she gave a sigh of relief and looked at the door to see Neji barely making through it with a huge cradle on his shoulders.

Once he entered the room, he put the small bed onto the ruined floor with an air of pride and stretched himself, as if trying to get rid of a spine hernia. Sasuke got embittered, because in his vocabulary it meant: "Even though you didn't help me, I brought it all by myself, and lookit me, I'm so awesome." On the other hand, the spark of anger quickly turned into amusement, when Neji flicked back his coffee-coloured hair and to Sasuke this motion seemed rather girly.

"Alright," the cousin said. "I'm off to bring the second one."

"The second one?" Sasuke and Hinata blinked totally out of the loop. One could've thought that Neji was playing a very interesting yet not too funny prank on them. Sasuke glanced at Hinata, but she was just as lost as he was. If that wasn't enough, her stomach churned again.

"What…" Neji rubbed his nape, thinking he might've been wrong or he was completely out of his mind. Sasuke twitched in a reflex action as he activated his byakugan and stared at Hinata. Or at her belly to be more exact and she instinctively covered it with her hands, but of course, it was futile to try and hide from byakugan. The veins on Neji's cheeks disappeared just as suddenly as they had appeared. "Well, it's definitely two. Seriously," he rolled his eyes and left the room, as Sasuke and Hinata met each other's eye once again.

"TWO?!"

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TBC...


	27. Aftermath: Moving on

**Aftermath: Moving on…**

Slowly and resolutely, without any sense of guilt, a flexible hand slipped into a basket covered with white handkerchief. And it had to pay for it immediately as the hand-thief received a sharp blow from a smaller hand.

Sasuke withdrew his hand pouting and glared at Hinata reproachfully, as if asking innocently: "what for?" Hinata totally blanked him and kept on walking down the street, carrying the basket close to her chest. Cold December wind flapped her scarf. It was late and the weather was getting chilly, but it generated no nuisance for the two people, slowly walking down the streets of Konoha. Winter wasn't a nuisance, because

a) it's not cold when you wear warm clothes; and

b) snow was special.

Hinata halted underneath a dimly glowing lamp pole and scanned the snow-covered houses in front of her. The street was supposed to be cleaned and swept, but so many people trod it up and down every single day that once the snow would fall it would soon be trampled, tamped and turned into such a thick blanket, that it was virtually impossible to chip it off the soil, unless one dumped a ton of salt. And the people of this block were rather stingy.

Therefore late in the night the street was glistening with trampled and smoothened snow which was now as slippery as ice. There must've been at least one kid who'd split his forehead or chin here while trying to skate during day time.

It wasn't even mid-winder and Hinata realized she was asking for unbelievable, but she really wanted it to snow lots. She wanted tons and tons of snow. And she wanted clear sky. And no wind. So that the full moon would shine and the snow would creak as one walked down the road.

"What are you thinking of?" he asked suddenly, and she would've winced any other time, but after two years with that creature, she had gotten used to such surprises.

"Just…" she shook her head and looked at him smiling faintly. Sasuke was wrapped in a thick woolly scarf, he was wearing silver jacket with high collar and fur was trying to escape his long dark boots. Unkind wind was ruffling his hair, but Hinata guessed that the Uchihas had a weird natural layer of underfur on their heads and therefore, they were never really utterly cold. "Somehow…" she moved onwards, because the food in the basket was about to cool off. "I miss your boots."

Sasuke blinked slowly.

"What boots?" he trimmed his collar and followed after her.

"You once had these boots. White high boots," she shrugged. "I can still see their noses in my head."

Those horrendous boots Sakura had bought him. The ones he had frazzled successfully during his spars with Naruto. He thought he owned them in his past life. On the other hand, it really was close to it. Even when he tried to recall the footwear he once had he sort of had to go from one dimension of his brain into the other, because the memories of that winter from two years ago were carved into his mind using different senses and it took pretty long to get to it.

But he did remember the boots. Despite the weird-factor, they had been comfy nevertheless. Though why she should be recalling the noses of those boots… Ah, he remembered that as well.

"You were like totally wasted then," he smirked.

"Then I suppose you do remember what happened the next morning, right?" she halted and turned at him, and there was something sly in her glance; and Sasuke wondered which part of her subconscious was always hiding that side of her.

He weighed down his head and hid behind the black hair curtain. It hadn't seen scissors for awhile. His mane was dishevelled and even the shortest strands were reaching his shoulders now. Yet, as far as memory goes, he never was the one to forget things. Especially if the past had anything to do with Hinata – he remembered every single detail. How else would've he been able to tease her? Though, the problem was that Hinata wasn't a scatterbrain as well.

"Guilty," he raised his gloved hand, looking her straight in the eye.

She bit her lip, thinking what she should do next. Wind ruffled her almost-shoulder-length hair, yet a thin white band didn't allow the short strands get into her misty eyes. With her hair trimmed in such a short manner and with that warm winter coat she looked more like a teenager, definitely not a grown-up kunoichi.

Something fluttered in Sasuke's stomach and he wished he could just turn round and go home instead of crawling to the Uzumaki lair, where he was sure he was going to get a terrible headache after only a few minutes of stay. Yet, he was supposed to support his friend and Hinata would surely nag him for at least a week if he were to turn on his heal and disappear all of a sudden.

Therefore, he merely grinned, reached out his hand towards her and closed his eyes. Hinata sighed. That bugger always knew how to terminate an argument before it even started. What was more, winter always made her nostalgic. And he expressed a wish to be guided so humbly and obediently that she just couldn't say no. Just like in the old days.

She took him by his hand without a single word and walked him down the icy street. Eventually in some magical way that basket ended up being carried by Sasuke and Hinata concentrated on the road, so that they could avoid pits and bumps. Although, even if there was the biggest trench ever, the chances that Sasuke would've flopped flat on his butt were still very slim. Yet she couldn't suppress her instinct to guard and protect.

"We go there, we give that, we leave," he grumbled on her left.

"He's your friend," Hinata contradicted him softly.

"But he's not the one in labour…"

Silence followed, during which Hinata was trying to grasp what he had actually been trying to say. She felt that he really wanted to convey something. Something which, most probably, he was a bit embarrassed to admit, and therefore reading between the lines was left up to Hinata's competence. So she decided to just take a plain guess.

"Can't you really trust Neji that much?"

Sasuke slowed down his pace and gave a quiet growl. That sound was coming from deep inside his chest and usually it was his way to announce his defeat. Hinata sighed.

"He just needs to be there and prevent… I don't know, drunken birds from crashing into the windows," she said calmly. "They are going to sleep all night. Perhaps right up to the late morning."

"All night," he grumbled underneath his nose, but Hinata heard him nevertheless.

"Unless, of course, you have some ulterior motives."

Sasuke hid behind his huge jacket collar. Hinata was about to throw his favourite word at him, but a muted sound of a crashing plate reached her ears and she looked up.

They were finally standing in front of a moderate two-storey house in the West side of Konoha. There was light in all of the windows, and the landlords were definitely noisy. Well, those two were never silent to be honest. Sasuke opened his eyes, looked around and hunched insensibly.

"Let's leave that basket and go home, honestly," he mumbled quietly.

"We didn't come just toleave the basket and go," Hinata pulled him with her and they climbed up the steps to the main entrance. "Today is the last day as Sakura is home. We need to show moral support."

"I'm pretty sure she's brimming with certain morale," Sasuke eyed the windows, wondering which part of the house the screams were coming from.

"They're your teammates. What if I didn't come at Kiba's or Shino's beckon…"

"None of them is able to smash a concrete wall with one fi…" Sasuke didn't manage to finish his sentence, because suddenly the door flapped open and something scared shitless and yellow ran outside.

"Save yourselves!" the creature yelled and dashed through Hinata and Sasuke. He was fast enough to make their hair flutter. He might've escaped if it weren't for Sasuke's arm which was even faster, and he grabbed the escapee at his nape.

"GAH~" Naruto gurgled something as Sasuke put him on the doorstep.

"Going somewhere?" Sasuke raised his eyebrow.

Naruto was blue with fear. He eyed Sasuke with Hinata and then looked back inside the house, shaking like an asp leaf. Hinata met Sasuke's eye and they both entered the warm vestibule, without wasting the warmth while keeping the door open. Sasuke didn't forget to drag Naruto along and close the door behind him.

"Care to explain?" Uchiha let the blonde go and he flopped on the floor.

"You don't understand," Hinata almost fell over as she saw Naruto playing with his forefingers just as she used to back in the days. "She's gonna kill me T.T"

"For what?" the guests asked simultaneously.

"Well I… I bought her new comfy shoes and…" he explained breathless. "And she tried them on, but when she stood up she couldn't see the noses well, and she can't really bend you know… so she… went mad. A little," Naruto stood up, when another plate crashed into the kitchen wall.

"A little?" this time Sasuke raised both eyebrows.

"NARUTO!" a roar came and Uzumaki hid behind Uchiha. Hinata, totally perplexed, watched the scene unfolding right in front of her, as Sakura emerged into the vestibule from the kitchen, with her pink hair tied with a ribbon, her face red with anger, and wearing black loose dress and navy blue boots. Her turquoise eyes were quick to locate the target.

"You!" she pointed somewhere at Sasuke's shoulder where Naruto's nose was still visible. "It's your fault! You did this!" she pointed at her huge round belly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Well, I hope so," he grumbled. "Otherwise he'd suck if he couldn't knock up his own wife."

…

Sakura froze as if thunderstruck. Hinata's eyes widened in astonishment while Naruto squeaked something incoherent. There was a strange silence in the house.

"Are we calm yet? Great," Sasuke began unbuckling his jacket, being a true embodiment of Zen.

"Oh," Sakura's legs crossed in a funny manner and she went pale.

No one asked anything. They just stared frozen at her, with question marks in their eyes.

"I think…" Sakura swallowed. "My waters just broke…"

"Oh, for the love of…" Naruto snatched Sasuke's arm. "Medic. CALL FOR A MEDIC! MEDI—"

WHAM!

No matter how serious her condition was, Sakura still bothered to come closer and whack Uzumaki properly in the face.

"I am a medic, you moron," she growled. Her forehead covered in sweat.

"But still now yo- OOMF~" Naruto hushed as Hinata thrust the basket with home made taiyaki into his hands. She was just as quick in getting rid of her coat, scarf and gloves, turning Sasuke into a temporal coat-rack.

"Let's go," she took Sakura's forearm gently yet resolutely, and guided her into the depths of the house.

"Well, here's your medic," Sasuke sighed and plunged his hand into the basket Naruto was holding, pulling out a fat and still warm taiyaki.

"But this is not…" Naruto was certainly out of the loop. "It's not a broken arm or a split eyebrow… does she even have any experience in this?" he glanced at Sasuke hopefully. Uchiha took a bite of his taiyaki and glared at Naruto with "Are you stupid?" in his eyes.

"Sorry I asked," Uzumaki pouted.


End file.
